Labyrinth
by seven dials
Summary: The obligatory 'Angel Sanctuary does Labyrinth' fic. Well, somebody had to do it (and this somebody doesn't care if it's been done). Six chapters and still going strong... No warnings, just a bad word or three and some shounen-ai.
1. Chapter 1

Desperate Angel 

**The Labyrinth** An Angel Sanctuary fanfiction by Kaochan ____ 

Obligatory Legal Bit: Angel Sanctuary, it's characters, indices and related designs are property of Kaori Yuki, Hana to Yume comics, Hakusensha, old Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and all. This fanfiction is not intended to infringe on the rights of any of these people, nor is it intended to be sold, hired or reproduced for profit. If anything I'm losing money on it. 

Author's notes: Yes, it's the obligatory 'Angel Sanctuary does the Labyrinth' fic. Well, somebody had to do it (and this somebody doesn't much care if it's been done; there are about 45823897395 versions of the Rocky Horror show done with casts from manga and anime, so why not?). I was really enjoying my Zetsuai take on Return of the Jedi before I got bored of the series… I hope that I'll get as much out of this as I did out of the others I have done. 

Warning: stupidity, terrible jokes, mad character assassination and the occasional spoiler all lie ahead. If I have reamed your favorite character, please bear this in mind: I love Rociel and the Mad Hatter, and look what I've gone and done to them! All the same, this probably isn't going to be your cup of tea if you're a big Sara fan. Many apologies too if I have left someone you really like out, though that's probably not such a bad thing. ____ 

**Chapter 1**

It wasn't like it took much for Setsuna to get his mom angry. Considering that one sure way for him to get his mom angry was to show up and be Setsuna at her as obviously as possible, arriving home massively late after being caught in a rainstorm and getting in yet another fight with Kira's druggy friends when mom had decided, for reasons best known only to herself, that she wanted him to babysit Sara when normally she couldn't stand to see him standing next to Sara without calling the police and trying to put a restraining order on him ('Officer! That boy is corrupting my darling child!'), was a short cut to unleashing a decorous suburban Armageddon down on the entire house. 

What self-respecting juvenile delinquent had to be in by six or risk the wrath of his mom? It was laughable, that's what it was. And even if he was thrilled at the unexpected chance to get close to his beloved Sara without mom immediately starting to throw things at him, Setsuna still wished that it wasn't happening. Having to cut short a fight just because your mom wanted you home was really pretty embarrassing, as it was he'd had to deliberately cut himself to ensure that he went into an berserker rage at the sight of the blood, thus ending the fight as fast as possible. "I'm late I'm late I'm late…" he muttered to himself like a mantra, as if by the mere act of repeating himself over and over he could somehow make it not the case. Obviously, though, that wasn't going to work. His watch remained resolutely stuck at seven regardless of how much he wished it would go back an hour so that his mom could just get the hell out of the house with the minimum of fuss and leave him to enjoy an evening in with Sara. But no, obviously, he wouldn't have been Setsuna Mudou if life had decided not to constantly screw him over and all he had to look forward to in the immediate future was a massive argument. Sighing and shaking his head, he paused momentarily at the entrance to his mom's apartment building, then steeled himself. Oh well, the sooner he got this argument over with the sooner mom would leave him and Sara alone in the house with easy access to a decent bed, as well as the sofa and several other places designed to lie down on with comfort and the keys to the drinks cabinet. 

"And what time do you call this?" Mom had actually been waiting at the door for him. She was good at that. Setsuna supposed he shouldn't even have been surprised. "Five past seven," he said a little glibly. "You do realize," Mom said icily, "That you are an hour late?" "Got held up." Setsuna said, slipping out of his shoes. 

Mother gave Setsuna one of her patented Icy Stares of Death, but was interrupted before she could start hurling the contents of the living room at him by the sudden appearance of Sara, who had heard the voices in the hall and come to investigate. Sara was, as ever, dressed in a long flowing dress with ribbons in her equally long flowing blonde hair and looked as if she'd just come in from frolicking picturesquely in a sunlit field of clover with a small white kitten named Tibbles. Actually, she'd just walked out of her bedroom where she'd been hugging a teddy bear and staring into space, wondering why Ruri-chan was being so mean to her these days, which in a less delicate, beautiful specimen would have been sulking or pouting but in her case was probably described as pensiveness or wistfulness, but appearances could be deceptive. 

"Anikichan!" Sara yelled delightedly, launching herself at then glomping onto the soaking wet Setsuna. "You're home! I was so worried!" She pulled back a little and giggled "Oh, but you're soaking! Ah, have you been fighting again? Anikichan!" Sara looked shocked and turned from her brother to her mother. "Mother, you've got to let Setsuna change his clothes before he catches his death of cold!" Mrs. Mudou's expression softened into one of benign concern as it so often did when confronted with her innocent little daughter (when she was being innocent and girlish, of course, not when she was insisting on consorting with that young ruffian Setsuna, how could they be of the same blood, etcetera…). "Sara, darling, you will be all right when I'm out, won't you?" "Of course!" Sara said with a smile so sweet it could induce cavities. "I have Anikichan to look after me!" She clung onto Setsuna's arm and smiled blissfully, utterly unaware of the murderous expression that had flitted onto her mother's face, or of the dangerously ahem rapt one that had alighted on her brother's. "Well… very well then, Sara." Her mother gave Sara a soft smile and Setsuna a look of pure loathing that he utterly failed to notice as he was gazing at the beautiful Sara and angsting over how he could feel like this for his sister. "Setsuna, I need to talk to you. Alone." "Oh?" Sara looked between her mother and her brother in concern. "I'll… I'll be in my room, Anikichan…" 

Setsuna, by now practically standing in a little puddle of his own creation, gave Sara a wistful glance as she walked back into her room. Sara, for her part, turned and gave him a slight smile which cheered him up immensely for all of about two seconds before the 'how can I think such things about my sister' angst kicked in. Unfortunately for him, his mom hadn't failed to notice the glance and she glowered at him. 

"Setsuna," she said crossly, "You are to behave yourself whilst I and your stepfather are out, do you understand? I don't want to come back and find that you have corrupted her whilst I was away." "If it's that big a deal then why ask me to babysit?" Setsuna asked, adding "it's not like she really needs to be watched is it?" "The world is a dangerous place for young girls like Sara," his mother replied, "And, sadly, you were the lesser of the two evils… oh!" she looked up, and smiled unexpectedly. Her new husband, Raphael, dressed with a beautiful and becoming simplicity - a look that had probably taken him hours to achieve - had walked into the hall and was finger-combing his perfect blonde hair. "Hi, Setsuna," he said, somehow utterly contriving not to notice that Setsuna was dripping wet and stood in a little puddle of rainwater. 

Setsuna wondered, for about the twenty zillionth time, the same thing he always did every time he set eyes on Raphael, namely how his mother, a woman in, to put it politely, her prime had managed to end up marrying a tall, attractive doctor with an eye for the ladies who was also considerably younger than her. Maybe she was just very, very good at turning a blind eye to his womanizing. That was probably it. Raphael didn't believe in letting a trifling little thing like being married stop him from eyeing up (and then some) every pretty girl who took his fancy, which was only all of them. He had several very sexy clinic nurses, for a start, an attractive female head of practice and a large number of the patients were young women who didn't appear very sick; it was more like a hentai game's idea of a doctor's surgery than any surgery Setsuna had ever visited. 

"Ah, dearest, are you ready?" Setsuna sighed as his mother gave Raphael a simpering, vacuous smile. "But of course!" she said, taking his arm and suddenly transforming from a raging hell woman intent on protecting the innocence of her beloved only daughter to a simpering little girl. "Then let's go before we make ourselves any later." He said, and, giving Setsuna another brief smile, led his new wife out of the door. "See you two at around midnight. Ish." The door closed behind them with a soft click. 

Maybe, Setsuna thought, Raphael had only married his mother because he wanted to be close to Sara. That was the only logical reason he could think of. Either that or opposites really did attract… or maybe he was just interested by the prospect of being someone's toyboy, if only for a bit. Setsuna suspected it was the Sara thing though and he was ravingly jealous; if Raphael even looked at his sister funny he would immediately leap to defend her honor. Holding that thought, he walked over to Sara's room and knocked on the door. 

"Anikichan?" Sara sprang to open the door and peeped through the crack "Is that you?" "Yes, it's me, Sara." Setsuna said. "Oh! Anikichan!" Sara said, pushing the door to her room fully open and taking another look at Setsuna and his wet clothes. "You need to change out of those clothes, you'll catch your death of cold!" Grabbing one of Setsuna's hands, she led him into his bedroom and over to his closet. "I know! You take a shower and change, and I'll go make us something to eat and then we can think about what we want to do this evening." With another happy, innocent smile she practically skipped out of the room, almost leaving a trail of Sweetness and Light after her. Setsuna watched her go and sighed. How he could even contemplate thinking the way he did about such a lovely girl as Sara? 

So, after a quick shower, a quick change of clothes, and a quick burst of Sara-induced angst later, Setsuna walked back out into the living room, where Sara was preparing the meal. ___ 

Once the meal was done and Sara had slipped into her room for a moment or two to change into a different long, flowing dress that would be more appropriate for the night time, and perhaps to do something different with her hair, Setsuna relaxed on the couch and stared at the ceiling. Gods but it was nice to get the house to himself for a bit with no mom screaming at him, and no mom screaming at Raphael for calling up his little hos on the house phone when she was in as well (since their marriage the quarterly phone bills had skyrocketed), and no mom screaming for Sara to come and help her with the chores and, well… basically, no mom, and no Ruri Saiki fluttering round the place either, though she had got a bit weird lately. 

And, most importantly, he had a night without having to worry about any of that, alone with the girl of his dreams. Sara. His sister. Yes, he was a little worried about that one as well but there wasn't a lot he could do about it; he was rather fonder of his sister than he should have been and that was all there was to it. But if it hadn't been for Sara's company Setsuna would have been in a far fouler mood with his mom than he was, but any night when he got to spend extra time with Sara without anyone complaining or the presence of any third party just had to be a good one. 

He wondered if Sara was done changing, or whatever it was she was actually doing yet and, if not, if he should go and peep just to be on the safe side. 

"Anikichan?" Sara called from the bedroom. "Are you there?" "Yes, I'm there." He replied, getting up from the couch and padding over to Sara's bedroom door, to wait there obediently like a good boy. "Are you all right?" He pushed open the door to Sara's room and discovered her sitting on the edge of the bed, looking perturbed. "Sara, what's wrong?" Sara frowned. "Promise you won't laugh?" she asked, looking adorably imploringly up at him. "I… I think something strange is going to happen tonight… and I'm worried. Things just don't feel right, like…" she gazed out of the window at the rain. "Like this storm blew up awfully suddenly, don't you think? And all evening I've been having the feeling that someone's watching me…" she tailed off. "I know it sounds silly." 

Setsuna was inclined to agree, it did sound a bit daft, but this was Sara, Sara for whom he would do anything, and he wasn't about to tell her she sounded crazy because he didn't want to hurt the dear girl's feelings. 

"Sara," he hedged, feeling a little awkward, "nobody's watching you. Just me, and I'm only watching you because I'm looking after you." Sara shook her head. "It's not that kind of watching, Anikichan. It's like… someone's just waiting for one of us to say or do the wrong thing, and then they'll do something… something bad, I don't know what. I'm scared, Anikichan. Promise me you won't let anything bad happen?" Setsuna gave Sara what he hoped was a reassuring smile. "Don't worry. I won't let anything bad happen to you. I promise I'll watch you and make sure nobody does anything." Not that he thought anything would happen; Sara was, as she had said, just being a bit on the odd side. Maybe she was just on edge because of the storm, and being alone in the house, though Setsuna couldn't see anything all that wrong in it himself. "Thank you." Sara said with a smile, giving Setsuna's hand a quick squeeze. "That makes me feel a lot better." She smiled again, looking a little more relaxed. "Even so, could you check the door's locked and on its chain? I'd feel better still for knowing nobody could just walk in." 

An odd request, but one Setsuna fully intended to comply with; Sara was after all his beloved little sister for whom nothing was too big a deal, so he got up and walked from the room and into the entrance hall, where he put the door on the chain and checked it was properly locked (it was; it was the front door for heaven's sake, did Sara not realize those things locked automatically behind you after you closed them or something?), Just as he was turning from the door, he head a shriek from Sara's room, a shriek that was quickly cut off. 

With a cry of "Sara!" that was probably a lot more hysterical than he had intended it to come out, he ran back to his little sister's bedroom and yanked on the door. He had to shove it a couple of times before it would open but, when it did, there was no sign of Sara save a slight dent in the bedclothes where she had been sitting. 

For some reason, probably the sake of the Dramatic Atmosphere, someone had turned the lights off and opened the curtains so that they now billowed dramatically in the wind. Whoever had been in here and abducted Sara had clearly done so in such a way as to make the suddenly empty room look as spectacularly deserted as possible. Setsuna was sure that Sara hadn't had her windows open before either. Good lord, whoever had done this was a fast worker, as well as a total Drama Queen. 

Maybe it was the thought about Drama Queens that clued him in. 

"Okay, Rociel!" He yelled to the room at large. "What's the big idea?" 

Rociel (for it was, of course, he, who else would have bothered doing all that - or, more precisely, standing round looking pretty, decorative and totally round the bend whilst someone else did all that for him - just so that they would be illuminated solely by moonlight and lightning and could have Dramatic Wind Effects inside), who had been perched on the window ledge enjoying the way the wind was dramatically disordering his hair and the cape he had decided to wear for reasons best known to himself (unfortunately Setsuna wasn't even surprised by this, the day Rociel showed up wearing something that looked even halfway normal it probably meant he was borrowing somebody else's body again), turned as if he had no idea that he would find Setsuna in his own sister's bedroom. 

"Good evening, Alexiel." He said, with a small infuriating smile. "What the hell are you doing here?" Setsuna asked, eyes blazing in anger as if he were about to start channeling Alexiel any minute, not that Rociel would have minded one bit if he had; indeed he'd probably have been rather pleased. "And where's Sara?" "I've kidnapped her." Rociel replied as if that were self-evident; to be fair to him this was largely because it was self-evident given that she'd screamed for help and her room was now empty, or at least empty of her at any rate. "Or rather, Katan has. I'm still here." "Why?" Setsuna asked incredulously. "I thought random acts of sickening violence were more your speed." "Eh, everyone needs a hobby." Rociel replied calmly. "That, and it's just the kind of thing you have to do if you're the King of the Goblins." "And you are King of the Goblins, I take it." Setsuna said sarcastically. "Yes," Rociel replied. "And I'm not even a goblin." He smiled infuriatingly again as if to say impressive, isn't it? and flipped a strand of hair off his shoulder with an obviously rehearsed motion. "You, Rociel?" Setsuna said incredulously. "You look more like Queen of the Fairies. And I thought you were Prime Minister of Heaven." "I'm versatile," Rociel said, "I do a lot of things that would probably surprise you." Was that comment suggestive? Setsuna wondered. Yes, that probably was suggestive, though Rociel could probably wash his hands suggestively… Setsuna thought he'd rather not know. "And if I were you I'd lay off the personal comments. Now are we going to discuss your sister or not? I'm beginning to get bored again." He stifled a yawn with one hand and half-turned to look out of the window at the atmospheric night. "You can't just kidnap Sara like that if you're playing that kind of game, Rociel! Aren't you supposed to wait until I've made a wish?" Setsuna asked crossly. "And stop posing like that, you look like a demented hooker." "Charming," Rociel said, pouting and jumping off the windowsill to land on the floor. As far as Setsuna was concerned this new position wasn't much of an improvement as Rociel still looked like he was waiting for Mr. Right Amount, but he'd have looked like that no matter how he stood, it was probably the plum lipstick that did it. "And what exactly is the point of being Queen of the Fairies if you can't change the laws to suit yourself?" "You mean you're cheating." Setsuna said crossly. "That's pretty impressive since we haven't even started playing anything yet, if not exactly surprising." Rociel seemed to have spotted something absolutely fascinating on his fingernails judging from the way he was examining them. "If you want to be crude, I suppose you could put it like that," he said thoughtfully. "Hmm... I think I need a manicure." "It is that!" Setsuna insisted. "Give her back!" Rociel looked up from his nails. "I can't do that, you know, now that would be boring." 

And he began examining his hands again, frowning when he discovered there was a barely perceptible chip in his nail varnish. Just as he judged Setsuna was about to leap at him and try to break his neck Rociel looked up and turned so he was facing in the opposite direction, looking at what should have been the bedroom wall. This was good timing on his part as Setsuna had just leapt at him with the intention of trying to break his neck but since he'd moved just before Setsuna could reach the spot where he had been standing the boy tripped and his own momentum tumbled him into an undignified position on what should have been Sara's bedroom carpet but turned out to be a grassy hillside. This was fortunate as if he had been in Sara's room Setsuna would have crashed into the wall and concussed himself. 

Pushing himself up into a kneeling position and spitting out a mouthful of grass and dirt, Setsuna called Rociel several interesting and colorful names, then looked around him and had to stifle a small gasp. The walls of Sara's room had vanished, Tokyo had vanished, to be replaced by a gorgeous fairytale valley. In front of him was a large maze, or even a maze with ambitions, in the middle of which was an equally gorgeous, dramatic, improbable stone castle which the laws of gravity said shouldn't have been able to stand up, but the laws of fiction said could. The sky was the bright blue of early afternoon; the rain had stopped completely, there was barely a cloud visible. The ground wasn't even damp. A slight breeze disordered Setsuna's hair; Rociel, by contrast, seemed to be standing somewhere far windier going by the way the cape he had decided to wear was billowing but that was just because he was the villain and they always got personal breezes, especially when they had hairstyles like his. 

"What the hell is this?" Setsuna asked, standing, momentarily too startled to remember that he was on a deserted hillside with someone he wanted to make die, a small someone, and it would have been an easy task to accomplish it. If, of course, said individual hadn't been an insanely powerful and just plain insane angel who was currently masquerading as King of the Goblins because he was bored, that was. 

"The labyrinth." Rociel replied. "I think the rest is pretty self-explanatory, Alexiel." Setsuna rolled his eyes. "Let me guess." He spoke parrot-fashion. "In the center of the labyrinth is your castle or someone's castle at any rate and all I have to do to get my sister back is make my way through the labyrinth to the castle." He turned so he was facing Rociel. "You," he said, "are a total lunatic, you know that? And stop calling me Alexiel." Rociel nodded seriously. "Good, you seem to understand, Alexiel." He spoke just as calmly as before, though Setsuna couldn't help but notice that once again he'd called him by the wrong name. Mental age of a four year old, Setsuna thought, tell him not to do something and he instantly goes and does it, perverse little bitch… "It wasn't that hard." Setsuna said. "It's not even that original. And the labyrinth itself can't be that difficult either. It doesn't look that hard." "Maybe not." Rociel shrugged. "Appearances can be deceptive. But you still have to do it if you want Sara back. If you don't want to play, I'll just… oh, I don't know, turn her into Jibrielle or something probably." "Oh no you won't," Setsuna said threateningly, "If you do, I'll…" "You'll what?" Rociel asked curiously. Setsuna seemed to have lost his train of thought. "I'll… do something…" he tailed off, well aware that his threats weren't actually getting him anywhere. After all, Rociel had Sara and he could probably do something awful to her. No, make that would probably do something awful to her, Rociel hated Sara with a vengeance after all. He had to rescue her! "And that will be something to see," Rociel replied sedately. "Oh, and you forgot the thirteen-hour time limit." "What?" Setsuna yelled. "What thirteen-hour time limit?" "Just to make things more interesting," Rociel said with that infuriating smile again, showing the barest hint of worryingly white teeth, "you have thirteen hours to complete the labyrinth, otherwise I win by default." "Now that is cheating!" Setsuna said. "You never mentioned a time limit!" "No it's not." Rociel replied. "It's just one of the rules. I'll show you some real cheating later on so you can tell the difference." "Oh no, you won't! You'll give me Sara back right this minute!" Setsuna shouted. Rociel raised one eyebrow. "If you really want her back, you know what you have to do to get her." 

Setsuna could bear it no more. Pausing only to rewrite the book of highly offensive epithets, he leapt towards Rociel again with the aim of, at the very least, shattering his sickening calmness - also, he noted, vaguely unusual calmness, was he drunk or had he just stolen some of Katou's drugs? As it was Rociel just grinned (that was a bit more like it, that grin; utterly maniacal), and laughed as the infuriated Setsuna pounced upon him. Once again, though, Setsuna found himself leaping at nothing; Rociel wasn't there any more; in fact he wasn't anywhere to be seen. The self-proclaimed King of the Goblins had just vanished into thin air. With nothing to arrest his fall Setsuna landed facedown on the ground, bruising knees and elbows and adding a few more interesting terms of abuse to his all-new profane dictionary. 

He was going to kill Rociel. No two ways about it. He was going to kill him. 

What in the hell did he mean everyone had to have a hobby? Well, maybe he was right by why would anyone in their right mind choose to have this as a-- oh, that was right, Rociel wasn't in his right mind and probably never had been, simple as that. Anyone who insisted on calling an obvious male 'sister' deserved everything they got, Setsuna reflected, getting to his feet and dusting himself off for the second time in a few minutes. This was not a good start, he reflected as he looked across the fields leading toward the edge of that improbable labyrinth. 

But there was no time for this! How long had that psycho Rociel said he had? Thirteen hours… and the labyrinth itself was hardly close. He had to get Sara back! He'd just promised her that he would look after her, and the minute he left her alone (how dramatic, Rociel, you must have loved that) she had been abducted. He wouldn't let her down. He would keep that promise, no matter how hard it looked like it was going to be to do so. Still, before he could start worrying about how difficult or otherwise the labyrinth was going to be, first and foremost he had to actually get there. 

"Don't worry, Sara." He muttered darkly. "I'll come and save you, then I'll make that lunatic pay." 

Why oh why, Setsuna thought as he started to run towards the perimeter walls, if Rociel wanted to play this bloody stupid game, hasn't he just kidnapped Metatron or something? At least Metatron was actually about the right age for it. Maybe it wasn't as much fun to run Sevotharte ragged. No, probably not, Setsuna thought, he does that all the time anyway, he doesn't need to stick Metatron in the middle of a maze somewhere to get up Sevotharte's nose, he just has to show up and be. Then again, that's all he has to do to get up my nose… maybe he's just a twisted weirdo with an absolutely warped sense of humor. That sounded right. 

Setsuna smiled grimly to himself as he ran, the grass whipping at his legs. 

Chapter 2 >> 

Fanfiction Index 


	2. Chapter 2

Desperate Angel 

**The Labyrinth** An Angel Sanctuary fanfiction by Kaochan ____ 

**Chapter Two**

Setsuna was hot, tired and sweating already, and he'd only just reached the perimeter wall. This was supposed to be fun? Well, it wasn't. It was so far removed from 'fun' that it couldn't have got more excruciating if it tried (well Rociel probably thought it was fun but then Rociel thought that putting dismembered body parts in the beds of people he didn't get on with was also fun, so Setsuna didn't think that his opinions on the matter were really worth considering). He didn't know how much time he'd wasted just trying to get down to the labyrinth proper, but it had certainly worn him out. He just hoped that the labyrinth itself really would be as simple as it had looked from the top of the hill, but now he was getting up close he was beginning to have his doubts. 

First off, it was obviously very big. It had been obviously very big from the top of the hill as well but perspective had rendered it less alarming than it actually was. Close to Setsuna could see nothing but the exterior wall - no sign of a door, even - and he was beginning to have his doubts about the whole enterprise. Mazes were bad enough even when you didn't have a time limit and weren't up against a man who was obviously more than inclined to cheat (or, as he was likely to describe it, change the rules whilst the game was in progress), but when you did have a time limit and a lot of rules and were only doing it because you were desperately trying to save your beloved little sister and you couldn't even work out how to get in… well… Setsuna didn't quite know what that was except for grounds for justifiable homicide. 

The only thing he could do was keep on walking round this wall until he found a door, or got so annoyed that he started trying to climb over the wall in spite of the lack of any kind of purchase that he could see on the thing. Still, there was no way he was going to give up before he'd even got into the labyrinth. He had to rescue Sara! 

So where the flaming hell was the damn door? 

There had to be a way to get in. Nobody in their right mind would build a labyrinth with no way to get in and out and, even if that was a category that only at infrequent intervals actually included Rociel, he couldn't imagine Rociel would go to all this trouble just so he could watch him (of course he had to be watching, he was Rociel, the New World Order were total amateurs when it came to surveillance compared to him) walk round and round a perimeter wall. There had to be some way in, logically. 

But after several minutes of walking alongside bare, featureless wall Setsuna was beginning to have second, third and fourth thoughts about the whole thing; after all he'd actually found himself with time to think and that was never good for someone as prone to angst as Setsuna was. He hadn't even made it into the damn thing yet and he was getting tired and bored. Maybe simple logic was too much to expect from Rociel. Oh good God, did he even want to go in anyway? True, there was Sara… but Setsuna wasn't sure how comfortable he felt with the thought of voluntarily subjecting himself to the laws of any country that was run by Rociel. After all, Setsuna reminded himself, Rociel was an insane bitch. But dear God, this was boring. Even whatever anarchy lay within the labyrinth would have been a relief from the mind-numbing tedium of walking along by this wall… 

An unspecified amount of time later (time didn't mean a lot when all you were doing was wandering along by a high wall in a tediously unchanging setting) Setsuna, by now seriously considering trying to scale the wall no matter how high and horrible it was, got his first sign that he was not alone. In the middle distance he could hear, as well as the sound of a small fountain tricking endlessly into an equally small pool, the faint but unmistakable sound of someone's footfalls. Company! Setsuna quickened his pace, almost pleased by the thought that there was someone else in this place. Not only was he bored and desperately wanted to see, well, anyone but maybe whoever this turned out to be would know where the damn door was! 

But what if it was just another lunatic? Oh well, Setsuna thought he would cope… 

"Sempai? What the hell are you doing here?" 

Setsuna stopped short when he actually caught sight of the man, though, partly because he had no idea what the hell Kira thought he was here for. He had been practicing needlessly complicated sword forms when Setsuna interrupted him, for what reason Setsuna had absolutely no idea, though he had a feeling that it was because that was a suitably cool and moody thing to be discovered doing… 

"Don't sound too pleased to see me." Kira said, pointing the sword straight at Setsuna and frowning in a diabolically sexy way. "And I could ask you the same question." "You go first." Setsuna said, edging round a bit so he was no longer directly in front of Kira's katana blade. "And don't point that thing at me." Kira quirked an eyebrow. "Worried I'll go off?" he asked with a small chuckle. "No, you go first. When I walk in on you, you can be the one to demand an explanation." Setsuna sighed. "It's going to sound stupid…" He began reluctantly. "Stupid I can handle." Kira finally decided he'd had enough and pointed the katana someplace less threatening. "Fire away." "Okay…" Setsuna said. Damn Rociel, as if all this wasn't bad enough as it was he now had to try and explain the whole stupid situation to Kira… "Rociel kidnapped Sara and has put her in some castle thing in the middle of this labyrinth and I have to go through it to get her back. Because he's bored." "You were right, that did sound stupid." Kira said levelly, then stiffened, brandishing the sword alarmingly again. "No you don't." 

Setsuna blinked; what had he done, he wondered? What was going on? His question was answered for him when some small creature shot past his ear so fast Setsuna was convinced he had heard a miniature sonic boom. He ducked and thus completely missed the sudden swing of Kira's katana as he effectively skewered the thing. 

"What the hell was that?" he asked somewhat dumbly. "Take a look around." Kira replied. "And there you have your answer as to what I'm doing here." "Killing bugs?" Setsuna asked. "Isn't that a bit dull?" 

Kira sighed and Setsuna got the horrible feeling that maybe he'd missed the point, so he did as bidden and took a look around him. Now that he was actually paying attention he noticed that the place was swarming with the little things - and that Kira, with an expression of horrible calm on his face, had just bisected another one. Curiously he stretched out a hand and one of the little creatures flew over at immense speed and perched upon it. 

Weird. 

Looked like Setsuna's comment about Rociel being Queen of the Fairies had been more accurate than he thought. As yet he had seen no goblins but the bugs, he now realized, were not bugs at all but dozens of rather nerdy-looking dark-haired little girls in blue dresses, with tiny gossamer wings sprouting from their backs. As he watched, the one that was perched upon his hand curled up and began touching and petting his thumb with an expression of quite alarming fascination on her face, all the while chattering to herself in delight. The significance of this action was, at first, almost lost on Setsuna - or at least it was until several others flew over and also started perching on his hand, their actions attracting another couple nearby… 

Fortunately, Kira noticed his predicament in time (well, Setsuna had started cursing and frantically shaking his arm in an attempt to dislodge the tenaciously clinging little things) and, with a muttered curse, he ran to his stricken friend. Distracted as he was by the swarm of fairies, Setsuna was still together enough to notice that Kira had his katana pointed at him again and he was just about to politely enquire as to the possibility of him putting the bloody thing down before he hurt someone with it when Kira swung it just above Setsuna's stricken arm, dislodging the girls. Those few who were still clinging after that had been frightened and started to wail pitifully; it was easy enough for Setsuna to dislodge them. That done he turned to Kira, still angry. 

"What the hell did you go and do that for?" he yelled. Kira sighed again at his friend's denseness. "They're Catholic school girls," he said, as if that explained everything. "If I hadn't done something they'd have started to swarm." Setsuna blinked, then paled. "Ah." 

Kira didn't seem to think that was worth a reply so he went back to playing with his sword, though now Setsuna could see that he wasn't doing that at all. He might not have been doing it in the most effective way possible, but what he was actually doing was disposing of the desperately clingy Catholic girls before any of them could land on him and notice that he was male. Setsuna also couldn't help but notice that, now they had no definite target to develop desperate crushes on, there didn't seem to be quite so many of the little fairies any more. Great, he hadn't even got into the labyrinth yet and already he'd very nearly been crushed to death by tiny, geeky and dangerously obsessed Catholic girls. 

"Hey, Kira-sempai." He began a little anxiously. "Can I ask you something?" Kira looked up. "What?" "Do you know where the door is? I'm kind of lost, and I've got to rescue Sara…" "Depends." Kira said vaguely, pausing briefly in his swordplay to light a cigarette and swatting idly at a swooning fairy that alighted briefly on his shoulder, knocking her back into the air before she had a chance to be overcome by his sheer gorgeousness. "Depends on what?" Setsuna asked. "All I want to know is how to get in. Do you know or not?" "Depends." Kira said again, grinning slightly at Setsuna again. "Oh come on, Kira-sempai." Setsuna was practically begging now. "All I want to know is where the door is. If I don't rescue Sara, he'll turn her into Jibrielle and I'll never hear the end of it. Now are you going to help me or not?" "Depends if you ask the right question." Kira said calmly, taking a drag on the cigarette and then adding "shoo" and slapping another of the fairies out of the air; she fell to the ground stunned, then got to her knees and began to howl irritatingly. 

Setsuna decided that he had coped with quite enough of this for one day and so, ignoring the sword and the crowds of fairies that clustered round them, intrigued by two real men so close to them, he grabbed Kira by the shirt front and pulled him to him. "Are you going to tell me where the fucking door is or not? Because if you're not I'll go and find someone who bloody can." "Temper, temper." Kira said, disengaging himself and brushing out the creases in his shirt, looking irritatingly unruffled by the whole thing. "It's over there." 

Setsuna had to stifle a string of curses as he realized that, just beyond where he and Kira were standing, the wall dipped in somewhat and, in that sunken-in segment of wall, was a giant set of double doors covered in mysterious occult carvings. Maybe they had meant something to Rociel but they didn't mean anything to Setsuna and so he ignored them completely, which was a shame as they had taken a lot of time and effort to make. Setsuna was more interested in actually getting inside and his only interest in the doors was whether they opened inwards or outwards. 

Slowly, and with no discernable effort from either Setsuna or Kira, the doors swung slowly inward, to reveal… well, nothing terribly exciting. Just a gloomy, high-walled passageway, its sides covered with mosses and lichens. It looked damp and uninviting, but there was nothing overly sinister about it. All the same, Setsuna was glad that he had Alexiel's sword with him, even if it was dormant at present, and he felt that one bit happier for knowing that all he had to do was yank out his earrings to turn into a war-crazed sadistic lunatic. Hesitantly he took a couple of paces over the threshold, looking up and down the passageway. 

"Which way do I go now?" he asked Kira, who was stood behind him looking just as monumentally cool and unruffled as he normally did. "Don't know, don't care." Kira replied succinctly. "That's your business." Setsuna turned, blinking. Maybe it had been too much to ask, but he'd been secretly hoping he could persuade Kira to come with him. No matter how safe he may have felt with Alexiel's sword, he would have felt safer still if he'd had his sempai with him. After all , Kira-sempai was taller than he was. "You're staying here, Kira-sempai?" he asked, some of the obvious disappointment he was feeling showing in his tone. "Of course." Kira said coolly. "Okay." Setsuna said a little sadly. "If you're not coming with me, couldn't you at least tell me which way you'd go?" "This way." Kira gestured back through the open door, muttering something that sounded like "Catch me going anywhere near Rociel if I didn't have to," which didn't seem very brave of him but Setsuna knew exactly how he felt. "Anyway, you'd better get going, if you're going." "Yes, I'm going." Setsuna said, "I've got to rescue Sara." This made Kira laugh. "Yes, so you keep saying. Better get on with it then." 

And with that he turned on his heel and walked back outside into the sunshine; the doors slammed shut behind him, leaving Setsuna stranded in the moss-lined corridor, suffering from a sudden and unexpected attack of claustrophobia. Besides which, he felt a little lonely. Annoying though Kira undoubtedly could be, he was at least a friend - and a good one at that - and Setsuna was getting the feeling that he was going to need all the help he could get to make his way through this thing… 

No, he really wasn't liking it in here. The walls were too high and covered in stuff, there was other stuff - like tree branches and leaves - littered inexplicably all over the floor (how come he didn't know as there wasn't a tree in sight; another whim of Rociel's, presumably, maybe he thought it made the place look more spooky or something), the air was slightly damp and felt cold after the sunlit field he had just been stood in; the sky above him seemed almost as trapped between the walls as he himself was. Setsuna felt like he was in a box, or some kind of human version of a hamster farm. He peered all round himself in both directions, but couldn't see anything by way of a clue as to which way he was meant to go, so arbitrarily he chose right in that it just felt happier. Sighing to himself, he hurried off down the corridor, occasionally breaking into a run in an attempt to make up for the time he had lost dealing with Kira and those wretched little sexually repressed Catholic fairies. 

Now where the hell was the center of this thing and, presumably, Sara? And wherever Rociel was, Setsuna hoped that he would at least have the decency to stay there and not keep moving round so it was impossible to find and kill him. This whole thing was bad enough as it was. 

After a few minutes of walking down the passageway though, he realized that there was something a little weird going on. He had, as yet, seen no openings or passages into the labyrinth, or indeed any openings at all. What the hell kind of labyrinth was this if it didn't even have the decency to have any way in? Apart from typical of one of Rociel's insane creations of course. Why in the hell had he agreed to this? 

Because he wanted to save Sara of course. That was a good enough reason to be putting himself through all this; if as a result of this he got Sara back safe and unharmed wouldn't it have been worth it? He hoped she was holding up okay. 

He sighed again, deeply, and added a few more pages to his dictionary of Rociel-specific curse words as he ran along the corridor, desperately looking for any kind of break in the wall. What was the point of a labyrinth with no passages or turns or twists or anything? Maybe he was meant to climb this wall? But how? It was far too high for him to scale. True, he could, given enough time, a hammer, nails, some rope or string, wood glue and the like, probably have constructed some kind of ladder and scaled the walls that way, but Setsuna wasn't in the habit of carrying things like that round with him and he doubted anyone was. So, obviously he either wasn't doing something right or Rociel was already cheating, big time. It had to be at least possible to get through somehow, surely, even if it wasn't easy? Setsuna liked to think he knew the way Rociel's mind worked and he couldn't imagine the man would want to make things too difficult. That wouldn't have been as fun. 

Still no openings… 

Bloody man, what the hell was he doing? If he had hurt Sara there would be trouble, big trouble! What did a weirdo like Rociel want with his darling little sister anyway? Okay, he didn't even want to go there. Better not to think about it, he didn't think he wanted to know if he could get any angrier with the guy than he already was. Still, it probably wasn't any of the normal things that men wanted to do with pretty young girls. Even if he had been interested in Sara that way (and thank God he wasn't because if he had been Setsuna would have killed him long ago, though that wouldn't have been such a bad thing), Rociel probably wasn't even capable of it. That was one cheerful thought at least. 

And there were still no openings. 

"What the hell kind of labyrinth is this?" he asked incredulously. "It's just a passage. It's not even a very interesting passage!" Irritably, he kicked at the brickwork, cursing again as he stubbed his toe (should have expected that to happen, really). "Bloody hell!" That had hurt. He stepped back, leaning against the wall with one hand and rubbing his injured foot on the back of his other calf in an attempt to stop his crushed foot from hurting quite so much. That done, he stood straight again, looking down at his palm. Yuck, it was covered in… what was it covered in anyway? Some kind of matter. Quickly, he dusted his hands off then rubbed them against a relatively unencrusted section of wall. 

"I hope you think this is funny, Rociel, because I don't." Setsuna muttered under his breath. "I hope you're enjoying yourself because when I catch up with you I'll make you wish you'd never even been born so make the most of this whilst it bloody lasts because when I run into you again I'm going to kill you in a way so protracted that… that…" Once again Setsuna had run out of ideas for what, exactly, he was going to do apart from something so extreme that it would make a psychopath blanch and so he merely glowered up at the sky. Should he shake his fist? No, that would be stupid. 

"That what?" 

The voice made Setsuna yelp and he turned, ready to spring. That had better not be Rociel again because if it was his timing was absolutely lousy… 

"Oh." Setsuna stood straight again, an awkward expression on his face. "It's you, Arakune." 

It wasn't Rociel, thankfully, but Setsuna wasn't sure he was that relieved to discover that the reason for this was because it was Arakune instead. Arakune may not have been actively trying to kill him, but he wasn't a lot more relaxing to be around for all that. No sign of Kurai though and that was surprising. No, Arakune was alone, leaning up against a bare patch of wall (no moss or lichen there, Setsuna noted; maybe he had cleaned it off so he'd have somewhere to lean) and languidly smoking a cigarette. Setsuna hadn't thought it would have been possible but somehow Arakune managed to look even more like a hooker than Rociel had done earlier, but that could have been because Arakune was, once again, wearing a leather mini-skirt and knee-high boots and he was still very blonde. 

"Yes, it's me." Arakune smiled. "It's not much of a part, but I suppose I'll just have to do what I can with it." "Where's your cousin?" Setsuna asked. "Not here." Arakune replied vaguely. "You'll probably run into her later." "Well, that will be something to look forward to." Setsuna said somewhat grimly. "What are you doing hanging round here? This doesn't look like your scene at all." "Well truth be told it's not." Arakune said with a small shrug. "It's even more boring here than it looks. But on the other hand it's nowhere near Rociel, so it does have that going for it. Hey, do you want a drink? Come inside and see my husband, he's dying to meet you." Husband? Setsuna wondered, then sighed deeply. Oh yes. That whole Bride of Hell business. Who would have thought that Arakune could possibly have been pure enough for that? "No thank you," he said, as politely as he could manage. "I'm afraid I'm very busy." "Oh!" Arakune blinked, a started expression on his face. "I meant to ask! What are you doing here anyway?" "I thought you'd never ask." Setsuna replied. "Well, it's a long enough story already and I don't reallly have time to tell it, but the short version is I've got to get to the center of this labyrinth in less than thirteen hours, but it's impossible." He gestured up and down the still decidedly doorway-less corridor. "I've been walking down this corridor for ages now and there's no openings anywhere!" 

Setsuna wasn't sure what he had expected from Arakune but it hadn't been what he got. Instead of tutting sympathetically or laughing and telling him that that was because he had gone right at the doorway instead of left, Arakune pushed himself up from the wall and did the same left-to-right sweep of the corridor Setsuna had, before giving him a funny look that suggested that Arakune was of the opinion that he, Setsuna, was several cardinals short of a Vatican. 

"Are you cracked?" he asked. "The place is full of them." Setsuna rolled his eyes. "Arakune, have you been at Katou's drugs or something? There's no way in down here." "Yes there are." Arakune said patiently. "You just aren't looking right." "Well where are they then?" Setsuna asked. "There's one right there." Arakune said, pointing to a piece of wall that looked completely identical to all the bits surrounding it. "See?" "No, I don't see." Setsuna replied, ignoring the fact that Arakune's expression had become dangerously set. "In fact, think you've lost it." "I thought so!" Arakune said triumphantly. "You're far too reliant on your eyes! You can't take things for granted round here, Alexiel." Noting Setsuna's expression he quickly added "Setsuna. Messiah. Whatever your name is. Oh, does it matter? There's an entrance right there." He indicated the exact same bit of wall again, then stubbed his cigarette out on the wall and dropped it to the ground. "I don't believe you." Setsuna said. "It's just a bit of wall." Arakune sighed. "Oh geez. Let me put it this way. Either you try it and risk it that I might not be telling the truth, or you just keep on going down there. Up to you." That said, he settled back against the wall again. 

Gritting his teeth and resisting the temptation to try and strangle Arakune on the grounds that it would only waste more time he didn't really have, Setsuna took a couple of paces towards the wall. Nope, it still looked just as solid as it had done before, and that lichen looked horribly sticky. Still Arakune was right; he wouldn't get anywhere by just standing round and that other passage didn't look like it was going to go anywhere either, so it looked like he'd just have to trust Arakune. Pity he wasn't more trustworthy, really. Holding his hands out in an attempt to stop himself from breaking his nose on the wall he fully expected to walk into, Setsuna closed his eyes and walked forward, rather surprised when he wasn't suddenly brought up short by smacking into moss-encrusted brickwork. Somewhat suspiciously, he opened his eyes and looked round himself. 

He was stood in another passageway, in front of another stretch of wall and another passage leading off in both directions; behind him a gap in the first wall that hadn't been there before. Arakune stood in the gap, smiling in a told-you-so kind of way. Luckily for his short-term health he didn't actually say 'I told you so'. 

"You off now, then?" he asked with a little half-smile. "I'd get going if I were you." Then, as he saw Setsuna start to head off, he added "Only don't go that way." He pointed down the right-hand passageway. "Never go that way, it's very dangerous to go that way." "Okay, I'll trust you on that one," Setsuna said with a smile; looked like he'd have to revise his opinion of Arakune. "And thanks, Arakune." "No problem." Arakune said, blowing Setsuna a kiss that had him worried for his own heterosexuality. "Good luck with Rociel." "Yeah, I'll be careful." 

And with a wave that even that flirtatious kiss couldn't have made any less friendly, Setsuna headed off down the passageway again. His spirits had been raised by that encounter. Not only was he going in the right direction now, toward the castle, but it didn't look like the inhabitants of Rociel's labyrinth were any fonder of Rociel than Setsuna himself was, and that could be nothing but a good sign! After all, if they didn't like Rociel they'd probably be more prepared to help him. 

Arakune watched him depart, then sighed again, uncharacteristically sadly. He hoped Setsuna would be all right in there; it had been nice to see someone from the outside for a change, and Setsuna had seemed an okay sort. All the same, maybe he shouldn't have told him not to take the right-hand path that would, if he had just followed it, led Setsuna right to the castle. Oh well, at least that way the poor kid wouldn't have to see Rociel. 

| Chapter 3 >> 

Fanfiction Index 


	3. Chapter 3

Desperate Angel 

**The Labyrinth** An Angel Sanctuary fanfiction by Kaochan ____ 

**Chapter 3**

Setsuna made his way deeper into the labyrinth, choosing his paths completely at random but, from what he could make out according to his sense of direction, always heading further and further toward the center. At least the walls were somewhat smaller now and he could actually see that improbable vision of a castle, which seemed to have been designed by a committee made up of Walt Disney, Edgar Allan Poe and H. R. Giger after all three had taken substantial hits of mescaline. All in all not exactly a sight to inspire anyone, unless one was aiming to inspire a cheerful man to poke his eyes out on a bright spring morning, but to Setsuna that hideous architectural mish-mash of a castle was the goal he was aiming for. 

He started running again, in an attempt to make up for the time he had lost talking with Arakune. It was a good thing that he was running into such a riot of familiar faces, all of whom were prepared to help, provided you asked the right question of course. What wasn't so good was that they were all so loquacious. And it was a shame he hadn't been able to persuade Kira to come with him. It would have been nice to have a companion, even if that companion was sarcastic, rather prone to violence and made him look quite a bit less attractive simply by being so tall, dark and devilishly handsome. 

Still, now was not the time to consider Kira's rugged dominant-male sexiness. Not when he was supposed to be worrying about Sara. The thought made him feel somewhat guilty. God, poor Sara! What she must be going through at the hands of that maniac! ____ 

"Ooh…" 

Sara sat up, placing one delicate hand to her delicate brow. She had a bit of a headache and felt slightly woozy; had she been drugged? She briefly remembered someone turning out all the lights, then some brute of a man clamping a handkerchief soaked in something over her nose, and then everything had gone all pink and fluffy and she had drifted happily off. So yes, she had been drugged. Oh no! That meant she had been kidnapped, didn't it! How terrible! 

"Aniki-chan?" she called pitifully, looking round herself. "Aniki-chan? Where are you?" She couldn't see him anywhere! Oh, how terrible that she should have been kidnapped and taken to this horrible place! 

Though the castle, from the inside, wasn't really all that horrible. The room she was in was large and clean and neat, one might almost have said pretty, dominated by the couch on which she had been placed. What few pieces of furniture could be found in the room were quite exquisitely tasteful; a vase of roses and a candle, as yet unlit, rested on a small decorative table; the floor was tiled. A stone verandah, flanked by floor-length curtains billowing in the breeze, looked out onto an ornamental garden. All in all, it was almost worth being kidnapped if this was what her cell was like. 

Still, Sara's sense of melodramatics wouldn't let her admit that it was actually a very nice room. Instead she sprang to her feet and ran to the large wooden door - locked - which she proceeded to beat the hell out of, all the while crying "Let me out! Let me out!" until someone was attracted by the noise and came to open it. She had to wait a little while. In fact she actually had time to get bored with battering on the door and poke around the room a bit looking for clues as to whose it was, before going back to wailing and beating the door again. 

Katan hadn't been sure exactly why they had to kidnap Sara anyway and he was even less sure when he finally got that door open and was confronted by a small, irate girl wearing ribbons in her hair who flung herself at him and started trying to attack him. Katan let her do this for a little while before prizing the panting girl off when she started to tire. 

"Please calm down." he said, reasonably enough he felt. "Beast!" Sara yelled, struggling at arm's length and flailing. "Where's aniki-chan? What have you done to him?" "Nothing," Katan replied totally truthfully, "should I have wanted to?" "Then where is he? Aniki-chan!" Sara began to sniffle pitifully again. "He's coming to rescue you. I think. Maybe. If he manages." Katan said. "Yay!" Sara clasped her hands together and practically seemed to start twinkling. "I knew my aniki-chan would come rescue me from this horrible hole!" 

Horrible hole? Katan was shocked. If this was Sara's idea of a horrible hole, how would she have reacted if they had put her in the dungeons? Rociel had wanted to. It was only the fact that she was Jibrielle that had stopped him. They couldn't keep Jibrielle in the dungeons even if she was a prisoner; house arrest it had to be. 'Unfortunately', Rociel had added under his breath, then he had sloped off to work out his frustrations at not being able to put Sara somewhere he wouldn't have to see her by kicking Dubbiel whilst Katan, lucky soul that he was, had got the job of guarding Sara's door. Still, he wasn't sure what he should say about this. 'Horrible hole' indeed! Who did Sara think she was, Martha Stewart? 

Fortunately for him Rociel chose that moment to come back from whatever he had been doing, having changed his clothes in the interim. He was now wearing something a little more martial in an attempt to try and look more intimidating (this was always an uphill struggle when you were about five foot six, slender and wildly effeminate) and thus scare Sara into keeping her mouth shut. Alas, he looked more like a forces' sweetheart. With him came Kirie who rather ruined the military chic look that the two men were embracing by showing up in her school uniform. She smirked at Katan because she was currently standing closer to Rociel than he was; Katan decided to ignore her. 

"You!" Sara cried dramatically, pointing a trembling finger at Rociel. "Me." Rociel replied. "Yes, well done." He shut the door behind him and locked it again, pocketing the key. "Who exactly were you expecting?" "Let me go!" Sara shouted. "Or my aniki-chan will come and get you!" Rociel nodded. "Alexiel, coming here? Oh good. I'd be very pleased if that happened. It was rather the plan, after all." "It was?" Sara asked, subsiding a little. "Oh… well, you'd better not be going to hurt me or he'll kill you!" "That's too much hassle. I really can't be bothered." Rociel replied, and went to stand by the table with the roses on because that always made him look good. In spite of herself Sara was stung. Couldn't be bothered to try and hurt her? Well, what was she here for then? "Well can't you menace me a bit at least?" she asked. "I don't want to." Rociel said. "Kirie could do it if you were that interested." "Of course, Rociel-sama!" Kirie said eagerly, pleased to be singled out and not quite realizing that the reason Rociel hadn't asked Katan to do it was he didn't think it was worth Katan's time either. "I'm not that interested." Sara said. 

She flounced over to sit on the couch again and sat there demurely, knees and feet together. She then spread her dress so it hung from her knees in the most affectingly sweet way possible and placed her hands in her lap. If she was going to be rescued by aniki-chan she might as well keep her strength up and look good when he arrived; no more getting tied to chairs in an undignified manner for her! She sat and watched for a few minutes as her captors talked among themselves, frowning somewhat when she watched Rociel sit down at a carefully-chosen desk and start contemplating some artfully-arranged paperwork. Good lord, what a fuss the man had made to ensure he was sitting nicely. Just then an idea took her and she turned to look at the others. 

"Aren't you going to say it?" she asked curiously, breaking the silence. Rociel looked up, frowning; he'd been trying to concentrate and Sara had interrupted him. "Say what?" "What I remind you of." Sara replied horribly perkily. "What is this?" Rociel asked, that frown still visible. "'Twenty Questions'?" Sara was not to be put off that easily. "Come on. What do I remind you of?" Rociel turned back to his papers, hoping that Sara would get the hint and shut up so he could return to his devious plans. "I give up, what do you remind me of? Apart from Jibrielle with albinism, that is." He spoke distractedly, head down, surveying his papers closely. 

Sara wasn't taking this from a man with long off-white hair and yellow eyes who looked like an albino version of Alexiel as a boy and she told him so. Rociel responded by throwing a wine glass at her; fortunately for Sara's long flowing dress it was empty. Kirie pouted, Rociel-sama obviously liked Sara better than her! He had never thrown anything at her and he was always throwing things at Katan!! 

"Come on. It's easy." Sara said persistently. "No it isn't." Rociel finally looked up again; he was getting obviously rather pissed. "And I don't care anyway. Shut up will you? I'm trying to concentrate." Sara giggled. "Yes, I can see that might be hard." "How dare you!" Kirie shouted, cheeks flushing; Katan too looked a little perturbed. "Don't I remind you of… of 'the babe'?" Sara carried on doggedly. Having got this far she was not giving up, besides it was really pissing Rociel off and that was good. "No. What babe is that?" Rociel made another surely doomed attempt to concentrate on his plans for Setsuna again. "The babe with the power?" This actually made him laugh. "What power could you possibly have?" Rociel asked incredulously. "The power of whining and complaining?" He added, necessarily under his breath so that only Katan could hear, "Apart from an obscene hold on Alexiel's heart and mind of course. Not that I'm complaining, Oh no, I'm not complaining. I'm just pissed off, that's all…" "… No, not that power." Sara said, a clear undertone of are-you-stupid? noticeable in her voice. "The power of Voodoo." Rociel blinked in confusion. "You've lost me. What are you babbling about? Who has that?" "I do." Sara replied brightly. "You don't." Rociel replied, clearly hoping to shut Sara up and end the discussion. "I do." Sara said again. "No you don't." "I think you'll find I do." Rociel had by now reached the end of his tether. Slamming his pen down on the table he said, in a tone that Katan and Kirie recognized as a clear sign to take cover because things were about to get apocalyptic, "You do what, precisely?" "I remind you of the babe!" Sara cried in triumph, and began to laugh. 

Rociel had been about to retort (again; he never knew when to give up) when Katan laid a restraining hand on his master's shoulder, noticing with alarm how tense he was. This probably meant he was preparing to leap from the chair, run across the room and rip Sara to shreds; it was just the kind of thing Rociel did after all. He had to pacify him now; it was the only thing that would prevent total carnage. Either that or distract him, whatever was easier. At the very least he should discourage him from carrying on the whole stupid conversation. 

"Lord Rociel, this is getting us nowhere fast." "Agreed." Rociel said, turning away from Sara and rubbing his temples in an attempt to calm himself down. "Kirie? Take Jibrielle away and, oh, I don't care what you do, just get her out of my sight before I lose my temper completely. And I'm going out. I've got things to do." "Nooo! Aniki-chan, help!!" ____ 

Somewhere several miles away, Setsuna stiffened. Sara's voice! Though it was impossible, he knew, Setsuna could swear that he could hear Sara's voice and she was calling to him for help! Oh good God, he had to hurry, what if they were torturing her or something? There had to be some kind of short cut or something, or… he didn't know. All he knew was that he couldn't just keep wandering aimlessly around. It had seemed to work at first but now he was no nearer to the center of the labyrinth and he got the feeling that he'd seen that particular moss formation before. He was going round in circles! Well, that was no way to rescue his poor sister! 

That did it. He was going to mark his path. Simple enough, only what did he have to mark it with? He wasn't in the habit of carrying permanent marker round with him, either. So what to do? Ah! Of course! He'd use Alexiel's sword. There had to be something he could do with it after all. Hmm, how to get it out the necklace though; he wasn't all that mad at the moment. How he wished he had Kira and his ever-present katana with him… because he wanted the company of course, he loved Sara after all and Kira was, well, a man. 

Oh, to hell with it. If he was Alexiel, and everyone kept insisting that he was in spite of all the evidence to the contrary, Setsuna guessed he had every right to use her sword whenever he wanted to not just when Alexiel wanted to. Besides which, if he just concentrated really, really hard on being annoyed with Rociel then maybe Alexiel would want to get the sword out too. 

He closed his eyes and concentrated very hard on thinking like Alexiel would think. After about thirty seconds he gave up because it clearly wasn't going to work. Instead Setsuna yanked the stone from his neck, put it on the ground and glowered at it whilst thinking of all the things he wanted to do to Rociel. 

That worked. 

Ha! Now he had the sword he could mark the stones. And maybe Kira would show up again now! Just because he wanted the company, mind. Trying hard to brandish the sword in some kind of way that showed he knew what he was doing (he didn't and it was really pretty obvious; looked like Alexiel had to be putting in an appearance if he wanted to be any good with the thing), Setsuna carefully scored a deep cross on one of the corridor walls, then set off again, stopping at the next turning and scratching another cross into the wall. Okay, Alexiel probably wasn't terribly happy at the use to which Setsuna was putting her sword, but it was worth it, right? Besides it was getting at Rociel in a way, and who knew, maybe he'd even get to use the sword for real by the end of this stupid labyrinth and then he could give Kira more angel blood and make him even harder to kill. Yeah, that sounded good. 

What Setsuna didn't notice was that, as he disappeared round the corner, one of the paving slabs in the floor was pushed up and out like the lid of a manhole revealing a small tunnel, from which climbed a small, bespectacled young man dressed in overalls, brandishing a toolbox and carrying a stepladder slung over his back, who inspected the damage Setsuna had done to the wall in some dismay. 

"I don't know," he muttered to himself. "Some people…" 

And he opened up his toolbox and set to work repairing the gash in the stonework, whistling a cheerful little tune as he went. Once the job was done, he trotted off in the direction Setsuna had so recently departed in, pausing again in front of the second scratch and repeating his involved little performance, then repeating it over and over again as he discovered more and more of the marks. 

Setsuna continued blithely along his way, secure in the knowledge that he could easily find his way out again, until he darted down a corridor that turned out to be a dead end. Turning back so that he could retrace his steps, he spotted the little repairman as he finished fixing the last of his marks, still humming that perky little tune of his. 

"Aah!" Setsuna couldn't help the involuntary cry of frustration. "What do you think you're doing?" Bad enough that this person was erasing all his carefully-positioned way markers, but worse, this was yet another familiar face - Riuet, the little 'mad scientist', performing a far more mundane task than was his wont but looking just as infuriatingly happy as ever. Was he going to run into a single person he didn't already know? Maybe this was just a bad dream? But if that was the case, he wouldn't have been able to almost break his toe on the bricks back there, would he? "Fixing these nasty scrapes." Riuet replied cheerily. "Can't leave them on the walls, they make the place look untidy." "But I've been using them to mark my way!" Setsuna protested. Riuet tutted disapprovingly. "Well, you shouldn't have. This place is messy enough without you making it look worse." Setsuna couldn't debate the logic of that one. "Sorry." he said, "but…" he sighed, and made as if to walk past the little man, but having to stop for the fairly obvious reason that there was a large brick wall in front of him. "Waitaminute… that wasn't a dead end just now! The dead end was up ahead!" Riuet shrugged. "Just the way things are round these parts. Now, if you'll excuse me…" He folded up his ladder, crouched, pulled up another paving slab and disappeared back into the ground. 

Setsuna shook his head in a mixture of disbelief and dismay. "I hate this place," he muttered. All he had wanted to do was rescue Sara… why was it turning into an endurance contest? The walls wouldn't stay put for more than a few seconds and the place was populated by perhaps the biggest bunch of freaks and weirdoes it had ever been his misfortune to encounter, most of whom were his friends… without really expecting it to work he tried the trick Arakune had showed him on the wall in front of him, but nothing came of it. All there was to do was try and go forward and see what… 

Oh no. 

"Yes, I hate this place too, but what can you do about it?" 

No, no, no! Not another couple of his favorite weirdoes! Where did they all come from? What were they all doing just hanging round Rociel's labyrinth anyway? Didn't any of them have anything better to do? As if to prove the theory that this wasn't all just a really, really weird dream Setsuna banged his head, but gently, mind, against the wall behind him. Ow. No, definitely not a dream, he thought, rubbing his head. Great, he was still stuck in the labyrinth and now his head hurt. 

At the end of the passage, a few yards away, were two heavy stone doors, covered with verdigris and overhung sinisterly with ivy. That wasn't what was worrying Setsuna though, nor was the fact that this was obviously some kind of one-chance-only guessing game. The worrying thing about them was the two men - well, a man and a boy really - stood in front of them, and the worrying thing about them was the fact that one of them was brandishing a cupful of what could have been coffee but was, considering who its owner was, almost definitely tea. Next to him a gaily-patterned teapot rested on a rocky outcrop. Obviously he was on the right track, but that still wasn't terribly comforting when you were faced with a man who had a teapot and was not afraid to use it. 

"Do you want some tea, Setsuna?" Zaphkiel, who was stood in front of the right-hand door, asked, holding out a small china cup; Raziel, from the other side of the corridor, gave him a somewhat despairing glance and Setsuna an apologetic 'what can I tell you?' shrug. "No, I do not want some tea. I don't have time for this." Setsuna said crossly. Zaphkiel shrugged. "Ah well, suit yourself." He took a sip from the cup and regarded Setsuna seriously over the rim. "Your loss." Raziel buried his face in his hands and muttered an embarrassed little disclaimer before straightening, blushing somewhat. "You need to get through the labyrinth, right?" he asked quietly. "Well, yes." Setsuna replied. "That was the general idea, but I'm not having a lot of luck with that at the moment. Do either of you know the way through?" "No." Zaphkiel said calmly, still more interested in his teacup. "Nor do I." Raziel said, then added, somewhat apologetically, "But I do know it lies through one of these two doors." He gestured somewhat vaguely at the doors behind them. "What's behind the other one?" Setsuna asked, wondering even as he did so why he was asking. "Certain death," Zaphkiel replied with a wholly inappropriate grin. "Which one's which?" Setsuna asked. Raziel had the decency to look a little embarrassed again. "We're not actually allowed to say." "Yes we are." Zaphkiel countered. "But there's a catch. You're only allowed to ask one of us, and only one of us will actually be telling the truth. The other one always lies." 

Setsuna growled. Maybe he should have had that cup of tea after all, at least it might have settled his nerves somewhat. No, what he should have done was not gone and checked on the front door being locked for Sara, maybe then he would have been back at home with his sister rather than wandering aimlessly round this labyrinth because someone else had been bored. That was what he should have done! Why hadn't he done it? He was not in the mood for mind games, not whilst he was still feeling so frazzled by the labyrinth in general. 

"So it's a logic puzzle. Was this Rociel's idea?" he asked suspiciously. If it was, there was a higher than average chance that both doors led to certain death. "No." Raziel said, then murmured "he's not logical enough" and hoped that Rociel hadn't heard that. Zaphkiel had, and he arched one eyebrow but made no other comment. "So… one of you always lies and one of you always tells the truth." Setsuna said, then frowned. "I can't see Raziel always lying. In fact, I can't see either of you always lying. Aren't you supposed to be angels?" "Setsuna," Zaphkiel said, "Rociel is supposed to be an angel." "Good point." Setsuna scratched the back of his head idly as he thought about it for a moment or two, but rather ruined his pensive pose by going on to say. "All the same it doesn't seem like either of you to always lie." "Okay, if it makes you feel better neither of us lies all of the time, but one of us will do if you ask us about what door goes where." Zaphkiel seemed rather pleased with his revised mission statement, so pleased that he smiled again and topped up his cup from the patterned teapot. 

A long pause ensued whilst Setsuna tried to think this one through. He paced up and down, occasionally turning to glance at the doors suspiciously. The other two just looked at him. Raziel began to get bored after a few minutes and started tapping one foot somewhat impatiently; Zaphkiel at least had his cup to keep him occupied so he didn't look quite so fed up by Setsuna's precision display of walking and thinking at the same time. He hoped this wasn't going to take too long; the tea in his little teapot would be going cold. 

"Hmm." Setsuna said finally, turning back to the pair. "I think I've got something here…" "Well, go ahead." Zaphkiel invited him, putting his teacup down next to the cheerful little teapot whose presence was really beginning to mess up the whole dark and mysterious atmospherics of the alleyway. "Who do you want to ask?" 

There was another embarrassing silence as Setsuna ran over his plan mentally again. Just as Raziel was beginning to lose patience again and was wondering how wrong it would be to take a quick peek into his mind and find out that way what Setsuna was thinking, the boy seemed to finally come to some kind of conclusion. After all, as he had to keep reminding himself, he really couldn't be doing with getting stopped every fifteen minutes! He wondered how long he had left… probably not that long, he suspected, what with all these hold-ups! 

"Okay… I think I've got it. Would you," here he pointed at Zaphkiel, "Tell me that if I went through his door…" Raziel, essentially the honest sort, couldn't help but protest. "It's not actually my door, I just stand in front of it." he said nervously. "Whatever." Setsuna said, preoccupied. "If I went through his door, Zaphkiel, would you say that it would take me deeper into the labyrinth?" For the first time since Setsuna had got there, Zaphkiel frowned and suddenly looked a lot more intimidating. "I suppose I would." He said thoughtfully, trying to work out where it was Setsuna was going with this train of thought. This was something he had in common with Setsuna. "Then I should take his door, not yours." Setsuna said, but he said it inquisitively. "Why?" Raziel asked, equally confused. "What if he was lying about that?" "But then you wouldn't be telling the truth and Raziel, I don't think that's something you'd really be terribly good at." Setsuna said. "Look, I can't really explain it." "That's because it doesn't make sense." Zaphkiel said, picking his teacup up again in an attempt to try and stop his brain from hurting so badly. Logic puzzles always gave him a headache; such a shame that he was stuck in a three-dimensional, as real as real life could get in the labyrinth, version of one but that was probably Sevotharte's doing. "But I tend to try not to think about it that hard." Raziel was still mystified and trying to figure things out in his own head. "So if he was telling the truth, then I wouldn't be, so when I said that he said yes you'd know the answer was no, but if I was telling the truth then he would be lying and if I said he said yes then the answer would still be no and I'm confused." "Have some tea," Zaphkiel suggested. "Relax." "Oh, I don't care." Setsuna said. "I'm going through his door anyway because Zaphkiel… no offense, but you scare me even when you're not trying to make me drink more tea than the human body can stand." 

That said, he took a couple of paces toward Raziel, who instinctively backed away so that his back was against the wall. By this point Setsuna wasn't even that surprised, never mind even mildly creeped out, when the door opened by itself to let him past. He didn't notice the look that Zaphkiel and Raziel exchanged behind his back; they may not have understood much more about their puzzle than how to make sure it worked properly, but all the same they were worried, partly because Setsuna had been so keen to push on into the center of the labyrinth and get closer to Rociel than was strictly necessary. Zaphkiel was also worried because Setsuna hadn't had any tea and would probably be getting thirsty. Maybe he should have offered him a thermos flask full of it for later. Still… 

"Bye bye." Zaphkiel said cheerfully, and gave Setsuna a wave as the boy walked toward the now open door. "Hope you manage to do whatever it is that you're trying to do in there." "Good luck." Raziel heard himself say. Setsuna smiled in a way that struck the other two as almost cocky. "Thanks, but I don't really need it. I think I know what I'm doing now, so I'm not that worried." Again, he totally missed the look the other two exchanged; still, all Raziel said in response was "Well, okay, if you think…" "I know." Setsuna said. "I'm finally beginning to understand this place." 

So saying he strode confidently over the threshold and fell straight down the hole. 

Zaphkiel shrugged and traded a glance with Raziel as Setsuna's yelp of surprise was cut off when the door slammed shut again. Noting the concerned look on the boy's face, he gave him a reassuring smile. "I know he just fell down the hole, but I'm sure he'll be all right. Seems Rociel wants him alive for whatever reason or he wouldn't even have got this far. Now, are you sure you don't want any tea?" 

| Chapter 4 >> 

Fanfiction Index 


	4. Chapter 4

Desperate Angel 

**The Labyrinth** An Angel Sanctuary fanfiction by Kaochan ____ 

**Chapter 4**

Rociel, as he walked away from the entrance of the labyrinth, hummed a tune to himself. It had no words unless one was to count 'la' as a word which Rociel didn't, no discernable logic or even any real tune, unsurprisingly given that he was making it up on the spot. He was in one of his rare good moods, partly because he had gotten away from the almost immediately exasperating Sara for fifteen minutes (why had he kidnapped her?) and advanced the plot somewhat at the same time. Okay, maybe he shouldn't have done exactly what he had just gone and done, but it had been necessary. Watching Setsuna blunder round like that all by his little self had been so boring. Not to mention rather sad. Besides, he didn't want to keep Sara that badly and was only doing it so that Alexiel-neesan would play with him. He supposed he could tolerate Sara if in so doing he got to see Alexiel. 

Now that was done, he consulted his watch. Hmm. Setsuna should have fallen down The Hole by now, that meant it was about time for him to show up again offering him more cryptic advice and-stroke-or taunting depending on what kind of mood he was in by then. Looked like there was just about time to change his clothes again before his next appearance and as the only person who actually got to change his clothes it was, he supposed, almost obligatory for him to do so. So… let's see… 

Ah. He'd known that door was round here somewhere. Walking up to a stretch of utterly nondescript exterior wall, he pushed at one of the bricks slightly and wasn't even surprised when it slid to one side to reveal a small corridor. Well, that was one of the perks of being the Goblin King, he supposed, even if he did also have to put up with the wretched goblins; there wasn't a secret passageway in this place that he didn't know about. Even if the passageway in this case was not so much a passageway but a secret small changing room. So he was vain, so what? Rociel was, he knew, worryingly pretty and saw no point in not flaunting it. ____ 

If Setsuna had been in a slightly more self-aware mood, he would have probably have been almost embarrassed by the hysterical scream he had let loose as he plummeted down The Hole, necessarily cut short by his landing heavily on the floor and disturbing a quite immense cloud of dust which had him coughing like someone on fifty cigarettes a day after their morning smoke. Having finished coughing his lungs up for Rociel's amusement, he lay on his back on the horrible dusty floor. 

"Or maybe it was the other door." He said to nobody in particular. 

Having just fallen down a horrible dark hole, Setsuna decided he needed to run a quick mental inventory in an attempt to ascertain his physical state before he tried sitting up. Okay, it felt like everything was still attached to his body, that none of his limbs were in any imminent danger of, or had already broken, and judging by the fact that his toes still hurt somewhat where he had kicked the wall he hadn't broken his neck or back. His knowledge of medicine thus exhausted, Setsuna sat up - his head swimming somewhat alarmingly, but that he supposed was to be expected - and looked round himself, in an attempt to ascertain what he had fallen into. 

Okay. This didn't look promising. Horrible dirty and nasty back hole. No light. No doors. No ventilation. Terrific. How was he supposed to rescue Sara when he was stuck in a hole in the ground? 

"Well, damn." He said, again to nobody in particular. "I could think of a more apt phrase," said a voice from the darkness, "but I suppose 'damn' will do." Setsuna couldn't help himself; he screamed like a little girl discovering a spider in her hair and jumped to his feet, brandishing Alexiel's sword in the general direction of in front of him. "Who's there?" he cried, in a voice that was a lot more squeaky and terrified than usual. If he could have seen his hands, he would have discovered they were shaking. The disembodied voice laughed softly in the darkness. "You know, for someone who's meant to be my old friend you really don't seem to like running into me much." "Kira-sempai!" 

Setsuna knew that laugh, he knew that voice. Dropping Alexiel's sword and little caring about the fact that there was now a sharp pointy object lying unregarded on the floor in a small, cramped dark room, Setsuna launched himself in the general direction the voice had come from and, unusually for him that day, actually struck his target head-on, knocking the both of them back to the dusty floor again. Setsuna didn't much care though if it meant he got to cling helplessly to Kira. If Kira was here he'd be fine, he knew. More to the point, Kira would probably know how to get out of here. And so he clung to his best friend in a way that he desperately hoped would still count as a buddy hug and not condemn him to yaoi doujinshi for the rest of his life. 

"Kira-sempai!" he said, once his heart rate had returned to normal and Kira had stopped muttering curses under his breath, "where are we?" Kira smiled, though of course nobody could see it in the darkness. "The oubliette." He said., "Well, at least that's what the Queen of the Fairies assured me it was called." "What's that?" Setsuna asked, disengaging himself a little so that he and Kira were now just leaning against one another in a way that conceivably could have been counted as the kind of thing men who were just good friends did. "Well, by the looks of things," Kira said with a small and necessarily unnoticed shrug, "it's a hole in the ground." "I think I worked that one out already." Setsuna said with a small frown; then a thought occurred to him. "What are you doing here anyway? I thought you were outside the gates." Kira shifted uncomfortably and muttered something to himself. "What?" Setsuna asked. 

His only answer was more shifting and inaudible mutterings. If Setsuna hadn't known better, he would have sworn Kira was embarrassed and, in all likelihood, blushing. But Kira didn't blush. It was very lucky for Kira that it was so dark in the oubliette because he was blushing even though men like him didn't. He was embarrassed and flustered and didn't know what to do for the best. And he didn't like Setsuna's line of questioning at all and hoped he'd lay off. 

Setsuna didn't. "What?" he asked, blinking twice in surprise. "I can't hear you." "All right! I pissed off that lunatic Rociel and he thought throwing me into this was funny, okay? Satisfied now?" Kira knew he had shouted and wished he hadn't, but really! He hadn't asked for any of this and now here he was in this hole with Setsuna sitting dangerously close to him in a way that might cause people to… think things. "I don't know what you're complaining about," Setsuna was saying somewhat irritably, "normally he skips the warnings and goes right to attempted murder. How'd you manage to piss him off?" Once again, Kira felt he did not want to explain - or, at least, not at anywhere near a normal speaking tone - so all he did was mutter. This time, however, Setsuna heard his mutterings and, once he was sure he had understood correctly, the smaller boy's eyes opened wide in fright and he stiffened, gazing horrorstruck at Kira. "Rociel asked you to be his WHAT?" "All right, all right, don't shout!" Kira shouted, gritting his teeth and grateful for the darkness. 

Once he was sure he had calmed a little, though, he pulled away from Setsuna a bit and begun patting his pockets, hunting for his cigarette lighter which he inevitably discovered in the last one he searched through. Pulling it out of his pocket and giving Setsuna a painful nudge in the ribs in the process, he flicked it alight and peered round the room. 

"It looks even worse than it smells," was Setsuna's only comment as he stretched to retrieve Alexiel's sword and wondered how he got the stupid thing to go dormant again now he no longer needed it. "Any idea how we get out of here?" "None at all." Kira said. "The only thing I've been told that I'm to say I know of is a short-cut back to the outside of the labyrinth and I can't imagine you'll be wanting that." "Of course not!" Setsuna said in indignation. "I want Sara back, don't I?" "Well, each to his own." Kira said casually. "What's that supposed to mean?" Setsuna asked angrily, getting to his feet again. "Nothing." Kira replied. "But… if I was to help you out and risk making lunatic out there even angrier at me, what would be in it for me?" This only made Setsuna frown more. "What do you mean, what's in it for you? You should help me out of the goodness of your heart." "In which case we're going to be down here for a long time." Kira laughed and leant back against the wall, deciding that since he had his lighter out he might as well have a cigarette. That done, he pocketed it; why waste all his gas on looking round an unspectacular oubliette? "Come on. It's not like you don't do things like that. You bribed Sara into shutting up with a cheap ring. What do I get?" 

Setsuna sighed. He didn't have anything on him that would be likely to appeal to Kira. No cigarettes, no motorbike magazines, the only sword he possessed had been Kira's until Kira had given it to him anyway and there was no trinket shop to buy him a cheap ring from, not that Kira would have wanted it anyway. And he'd left his money at home. 

"I don't have anything." He said finally. "Just, well, me." Kira sighed slightly under his breath. "I'm sure you'll find a way." "You could give me a cigarette and I could give it back to you." Setsuna said with the brittle cheerfulness of a desperate man. "Look, Kira-sempai, I'm going mad here! Rociel kidnapped poor Sara and I'm losing… I mean, I can't have all that much longer to go and I've got to rescue her!" "I can think of something." 

Setsuna could tell from the rustles of Kira's clothing and the sudden upward movement of the glowing end of his cigarette that he had stood up and, within a couple of paces, had crossed the room to where he stood. Had, in fact, backed him against the wall in the way people always did in manga and TV when they wanted to corner someone they had a crush on with a view to either seriously menacing them or- what the hell did Sempai think he was doing? Setsuna screamed mentally; that was about all he could do considering that Kira was, to put it delicately, shutting him up effectively. Or, in less diplomatic language, was kissing him thoroughly and in a way that Setsuna could certainly not claim not to be enjoying and… WHAT? No, this wouldn't do at all! 

(Even if he was a better kisser than Sara… no, no, no, no, no! Don't even go there Setsuna!) 

Finally Kira pulled away from him with a diabolically sexy smirk that was quite obvious even in the darkness, leaving his friend backed against the wall and staring at him, or where he thought he was, in utter shock. Actually, Setsuna was gazing wide-eyed at nothing more alarming than a load of bricks since Kira was now moving purposefully round the room, but he didn't realize that. Having claimed his 'payment', he was no more eager to stick round than Setsuna was. After all, he'd probably annoyed Rociel no end. 

"What was that for?" Setsuna said, when finally he managed to locate his voice. "We're quits." Kira said from somewhere alarmingly close by, making Setsuna jump again. "I thought that was what you wanted." He pulled his cigarette lighter from his pocket again and lit it, illuminating the room somewhat. Setsuna was somewhat irritated to see that he did not look at all ruffled by their, um, encounter. "There's a door round here somewhere… can't seem to find it… ah." 

Setsuna couldn't see what Kira had found until he discovered that his irritating friend had bent down to the floor and pulled, with some effort, one of the slabs up using a handle that was attached to it for no reason. He slammed it against the wall, agitating yet more dust and grime, where, much to Setsuna's surprise - but not amazement since he was, as he had said, beginning to get the hang of this place even if he wished it were not the case - it stayed. Now they had a door. After admiring his handiwork for a few moments, Setsuna stood looking on, Kira yanked at the handle and pulled the door open. 

"Maybe not," he said. Instead of the dark dank passageway out of here that Kira had been expecting, he had instead discovered a creepy-looking corridor, lined with huge vats of some suspicious-looking fluid in which floated, well, things. Kira wasn't too eager to get up close to the vats of liquid - bubbling slightly too he couldn't help but notice - and discover what they were or where the passageway led to, so he decided not to take that way out. Setsuna peered curiously over his shoulder, frowning when he noticed the drums. 

"What's going on down there?" Setsuna asked. "I have absolutely no idea." Kira said. "Some abandoned sub-plot about insane scientific experiments, I'd imagine…" "How would that fit into some kind of bizarre fantasy that involves me rescuing Sara from the center of a labyrinth?" Setsuna wondered aloud. Kira shrugged. "It doesn't. That's why it's been abandoned." 

He pulled on a small doorknob on the opposite side of the door, this time revealing the way out he had been expecting, a somewhat better-lit stone passageway to… well, wherever it was, at least it wasn't lined with vats of stuff with suspicious-looking things floating in them and had nothing to do with bizarre research projects to create bigger and better violent lunatic angels. "That's a bit more like it." He extinguished his cigarette lighter again and pocketed it. Setsuna pushed gently past him and hurried down the corridor, relieved to be on the move again. How much time had he lost in that oubliette, apart from too much? Why did everyone he met up with insist on subjecting him to long, rambling discussions before they would deign to help him? Kira followed at a slightly more sedate pace. 

They hadn't been walking long before they discovered the first stone face. These were, as the name suggested, pathetically laughable-looking faces carved into the stone that, as Setsuna passed, started hissing out diabolical, dreadful warnings in what was probably supposed to be a sinister tone of voice but which was actually more nails-scraped-across-a-blackboard irritating than anything approaching scary. Looking up the corridor, Setsuna was somewhat irritated to note that there appeared to be a veritable gauntlet of the things lining the corridor, all of whom started chanting their supposedly baleful and terrifying warnings as he hurried past them, trying to make himself look as unobtrusive as possible. Not that, Setsuna would have been at pains to point out, because he was afraid of them, but because the faces and the warnings they were chanting really were annoying as hell. 

"Don't go on!" "Go back while you still can!" "Take heed, and go no further!" "Beware! BEWARE!" "Shut up!" Setsuna shouted at the last face. "Or I'll do something violent!" Kira, whose presence had led to another cacophony of sinister murmurs from the faces as he followed Setsuna down the passageway, decided that for the sake of their sanity it would be a good idea if he were to catch up with his companion and didn't have to listen to the faces deliver each of their warnings twice. "Don't mind them," he said casually. "What are they anyway?" Setsuna asked, looking at one of the faces incredulously. "They're irritating, isn't that enough?" Kira replied. "Best thing to do is just ignore them. Put your fingers in your ears if you think it will help." "Hey!" the face on the wall chipped in. "I am not irritating!" "Yes you are." Kira said reasonably enough. "Every time I come here you always do this, and considering I'm intact enough to keep coming back what do you think that says about what's beyond this passageway?" "Well, it is what we're here for…" the face began, but Setsuna cut it off. "What, to annoy the hell out of me? I get enough of that from Rociel without the walls ganging up on me any more than they have been already. Shut up, the lot of you!" "Okay, okay." 

Growling to himself, Setsuna stalked back off down the corridor, Kira following, but still sticking close. He didn't want to activate any more of those damn faces twice, they were annoying enough the first time round without having to hear them once as Setsuna set them off then set them off again himself when he walked down. Bloody things. Next time one started out he'd probably stub his cigarette out on it, he thought, it was nearly all gone and he'd have to put it out somewhere - and, if in so doing, he got the faces to shut up would that not be a very positive sign? 

"So," Setsuna said once relative peace had been restored, "where are we going? This had better not be your shortcut to the outside of the labyrinth." "It's not." Kira said casually. "So where does it take us?" Setsuna asked, looking up at Kira with an expression that was a little more confused than he might have liked it to be. "Further in." Kira replied. "You know… I can't show you all the way to the middle." "Why not?" Setsuna asked, honestly confused. Kira actually looked a little abashed. "I don't know how to get there," he admitted. "I'll take you as far as I can go, and then you're on your own." "And that's all?" "Yes, that's all. I think it's a good deal." Setsuna folded his arms and gave Kira a dirty look. "You would. For this I let you… I let you…" he blushed a little awkwardly, "… do what you did back there!" he finished a little lamely. In reply Kira gave him a grin which, though he hated to admit it, made him feel a little funny inside in the way that he thought only Sara could make him feel. "You didn't seem to mind it that much." Setsuna flushed awkwardly. "Have you forgotten that I'm doing this to rescue Sara?" "How could I? You only mention it once every five minutes…" "Beware! For the path you take will- " 

That did it. Kira, his expression murderous, turned to the stone face that had so unwisely interrupted him and stubbed out his still-burning cigarette on its forehead. The face gave a gravelly shriek and Kira a look that, for a wall carving, looked shocked, betrayed and hurt. 

"I did warn you." Kira said coolly, dropping the cigarette to the floor. "What did you do?" Setsuna asked. "Kira-sempai, you didn't, did you?" "What would you rather I did?" Kira said. "I had to do something." 

He walked quickly off down the corridor again, Setsuna a couple of paces behind him. This corridor was beginning to get on his nerves. Surely it couldn't go on for much longer? Surely… ah, his shoelace was coming undone. Setsuna bent to tie it up again as Kira made his way round a sharp bend in the corridor up ahead. Ah well, no matter, he could catch up with Kira later, it wasn't like there were any other ways out of this corridor so he could just… 

"Oh no." 

That was Kira's voice, and he sounded shocked insofar as Kira ever sounded shocked. Hastily finishing tying his laces, Setsuna hurried round the corner after his friend, stopping short next to him when he caught sight of the thing that had made him say 'oh no.' 

"Rociel!" "Yes?" Rociel asked, stepping out of the shadows and allowing the pair to get a glimpse of his latest outfit which once again made him look like an off-duty visual rocker who didn't quite know how to relinquish his stage image, and he'd pinned his hair up in a deliberately careless way that had probably taken almost as long to achieve as Raphael's 'natural' look had taken him. Privately, he wished that Setsuna would stop thinking it was acceptable to start conversations by shouting his name and expecting him to know what was on his mind from that alone. It was just his name after all. By itself it meant nothing. "Good afternoon, Alexiel. How nice to see you." "My name is Setsuna!" Setsuna said for what must have been the hundredth time. And then, with a slight glimmer of hope, "It's still afternoon?" "It's my kingdom, so it's whatever I want it to be." Rociel replied, brushing a few non-existent specks of dust from his shirt sleeve. "Ah, I see you have Lucifel with you. How sweet." 

It didn't sound like he thought it was sweet though, in fact it sounded like Rociel was quite royally pissed at this fact. Setsuna had no idea why this would be the case, after all he had far more of a reason to be mad at Rociel than Rociel could to be equally angry at him. Still, it was never a good sign when he started frowning like that. Maybe he'd seen what Kira did in that oubliette… he'd almost definitely seen what Kira did in that oubliette, Rociel had an uncanny knack of noticing when people were trying to get intimate with his sister and, by extension, when they were interested in Setsuna. Oh, dear. 

"I'm called Kira." Kira said coldly. "Of course you are," Rociel said in a tone which stated plainly that he didn't believe a word of it. "And what have you been up to, Lucifel?" God, that had sounded patronizing… but Kira, oddly enough, just seemed to be taking it. "Nothing," he said stubbornly, giving Rociel a piercing glare which Rociel was more than equal to. "Funny definition of 'nothing' some people have," Rociel remarked more to himself than anything. "Have you been helping one another out? Now isn't that charming." "No, of course not." Kira said much too quickly. "I'm just leading Setsuna back to the beginning of the labyrinth like we agreed, come on Setsuna…" "Sempai!" Setsuna cried, shocked. "That's dirty!" "In which case you've come quite out of your way." Rociel pointed out amiably. "Ah, I have?" Kira tried to look shocked and failed miserably. "In which case let's go right back the way we came and…" "Lucifel?" Rociel interjected. "Kira." Rociel had to resist the urge to sigh. What made Lucifel and Alexiel want to stick to those ludicrous aliases of theirs? It wasn't fooling anyone. "Lucifel, I would not be happy if I found out you had been planning to double-cross me. In fact I'd be forced to get angry with you, and I'm not nice when I'm angry." Rociel smiled. "You know that." Kira looked defiant. "Was that meant to frighten me?" "Don't be like that, Lucifel. I know it frightened you." Rociel replied smoothly. 

That said he turned away from Kira with a small, enigmatic smile which Kira did not like the look of one little bit, transferring his attention to Setsuna. If anything, the disturbingly mild expression on his face was more alarming than the irritated frown had been. It was never a good sign when Rociel started looking mild at you either. "Alexiel." "Setsuna." "Alexiel." Rociel said again, stubbornly. "How are you enjoying my Labyrinth?" Setsuna grinned in a way that was almost cocky. "Ah, it's not that bad, if you ignore the fact that it's full of people who almost make you look sane." "How flattering." "In fact," Setsuna continued, warming to his theme, "you might as well just give Sara back now since we both know that I'm going to win anyway." He was rather surprised at the rather pained expression that had alighted briefly on Rociel's face at the mention of Sara's name, not to mention the thing he had murmured under his breath, which had sounded almost like 'Go ahead, I certainly don't want her'. The next time Rociel spoke, though, he seemed to have recovered from his moment of uncertainty. "You seem confident." Rociel said. He smiled again. "Of course." Setsuna said casually. "Why shouldn't I be?" 

If Setsuna had been feeling a little less exultant at what he saw as his own conversational skills - he had, after all, succeeded in ruffling Rociel somewhat, even if he wasn't quite sure what he had actually done to achieve this - he might have noticed that Kira had looked around himself, then directly at Rociel with an expression which, if it wasn't alarmed, was definitely verging on 'troubled'. Kira clearly felt that the best thing to do in a situation like this was not to provoke a clearly psychotic individual whose sense of humor could only be descried as abnormal. Setsuna didn't notice Kira's unease, however, and stayed blindly oblivious to the fact that he was in a rather more precarious position than he might have imagined - or at least he did until Rociel broke the short and uncomfortable silence that had followed his last remark. 

"You know, I said I'd… ah… bend the rules somewhat when we started this game." He said, picking his words carefully. " I think that now might be the time to begin." "What?" Setsuna said. "You're going to cheat? That's not fair!" Rociel tried to look upset but didn't manage it. "Not fair? I promised you, did I not? What can be unfair about keeping a promise, Alexiel?" He flipped an errant strand of hair back over one shoulder with an obviously practiced motion; this made him look to Setsuna quite amazingly vain and this in turn was largely because Rociel was quite amazingly vain. "If you really are finding all this so simple, then I owe it to you to you to make it more of a challenge, surely? What's the fun in this if it's that easy?" "You call this easy?" Setsuna asked in disbelief. "You just said it was." Rociel pointed out. "And I wouldn't like to think that all I had achieved so far was to bore you. Therefore, if you really are finding this too simple, I owe it to you to keep you… let's say I want to keep you interested." 

Rociel's smile, now totally humorless and nothing if it wasn't plainly alarming, told Setsuna that he was using the word 'interested' in a rather unusual way. Maybe it wasn't wholly surprising. Setsuna suspected that, where Rociel was concerned, 'keeping things interesting' was nothing more than a euphemism for 'unleashing pain, suffering, humiliation and complete and utter pants-wetting terror on the nearest victim' and he was of course completely right. 

| Chapter 5 >> 

Fanfiction Index 


	5. Chapter 5

Desperate Angel 

**The Labyrinth** An Angel Sanctuary fanfiction by Kaochan ____ 

**Chapter 5**

"Wonderful." Kira said somewhat more irritably than was his wont. "Next time we meet up with freak boy back there, I'll do the talking." 

After delivering his last cryptically-worded warning, Rociel had disappeared off somewhere to do whatever it was effeminate insane angels did when they weren't obliquely threatening their adversaries, leaving Setsuna and a decidedly aggravated Kira alone in the tunnels again. Kira had been left decidedly annoyed by the encounter: Rociel had him more than a little alarmed but he couldn't admit to it, such a thing would be bad for his image. Instead he acted annoyed, that at least didn't make him look so terminally pathetic. For his part Setsuna didn't get it, but he almost never did. 

"What for?" Setsuna asked dumbly. "I don't see what the problem is. Nothing happened, did it?" "You're mighty confident," Kira said, giving Setsuna a dark frown which only made him look even more attractive, "considering you're not halfway through this and already you pissed him off royally." "I did?" Setsuna said, placing both hands to his chest in a 'who, me?' gesture of affronted innocence. "Who was it pinned who to the wall back there?" "Yes, you-" Kira began, only to break off, looking over his shoulder. 

In the distance, it sounded like someone had started vacuuming the corridor, for no reason at all that Setsuna could make out. For some reason, Kira now looked as if he was almost apprehensive. This was a rare enough occurrence for Setsuna to start to feel a lot more panicky. 

"What's the noise?" he asked, unable to think of anything more apposite to say. "That," Kira said - he still sounded calm enough - "is Rociel making things more interesting." "By doing the vacuuming? Doesn't he have people do to that for- ack!" Setsuna's hopelessly misguided comment was cut off when Kira grabbed him by the neck of his jacket and started dragging him off at speed down the corridor. "Gah! Sempai! You're strangling me!" Does he never shut up? Kira wondered. "No, he's sending in the Cleaners. Let's go." "The Cleaners?" Setsuna wondered aloud. "What's so bad about cleaners that you've got to start dragging me round by my collar?!" He started to flail a bit as well. "Let go!" "Nothing." Kira said. "If you really like the idea of being impaled, stabbed, cut to shreds and crushed underfoot, that is. Is that enough incentive to get you running by yourself?" "Is that how they do the cleaning round here?" Setsuna asked, finally tugging himself free of Kira and starting to run by himself. 

The noise was definitely getting louder, a lot louder, and the nasal whine of the vacuum was now accompanied by several sinister clanks, the screech of tortured gears and a very nasty mechanical whirring noise, as well as by someone's attempt to hum (largely failed). Even if Kira hadn't pointed out to him what Cleaners in these parts actually did, Setsuna would have been running just to stop the torture being inflicted on his poor ears. As it was he was really beginning to wish he'd kept his mouth shut. Bad as the corridor had been when walking down it, fleeing down it in terror for one's life was less fun and became even less amusing still when he ran slap into a large metal grille that blocked off the rest of the corridor. Only gripping the bars of the grille with both hands stopped him from falling. 

"Shit!" 

Some occasions could only be done justice to with profane language. Turning back, Setsuna could see a sinister gleaming of light in the corridor up ahead, heralding the approach of a large machine - no doubt the thing from which all the noise was emanating. 

"Over here!" Kira-sempai! Had he found something? Setsuna ran across to his companion, who was attempting, by brute force alone, to force open a rushed old door set into one of the tunnel walls, slamming his shoulder into it. "Sempai! Won't it open?" "Rusted shut." Kira said, launching another assault on the door then, as Setsuna just stood there and watched, he added, "Help me out here, will you?!" Oh. "O… of course!" Setsuna cried, embarrassed, and joined Kira in trying to batter the door in. 

Finally, with a tortured shriek of metal, the door gave, the sudden unexpected motion of something previously immobile pitching both Setsuna and Kira off their feet, landing in an undignified and again somewhat compromising tangle in a small alcove just before a hideous-looking machine covered in no doubt almost wholly pointless blades, knives, nasty-looking serrated edges and powered by an absolutely immense fan of some sort powered past them, followed by a surprisingly blithe-looking dark-haired girl dressed as a maid who was brandishing the vacuum nozzle. Had Setsuna been in the mood to take anything in he would have said she looked uncannily like Sara. As it was he didn't notice a thing, which no doubt relieved Kira no end. 

"What now?" Setsuna asked, pulling himself to his feet and dusting himself off. Kira, he noticed, had already recovered his not inconsiderable cool and was leaning against a rickety old ladder. "Up here." Kira said, jabbing a thumb toward the ladder. "Oh." Setsuna said. He had hoped for a rather more promising response but that had probably been too much to hope for. "Is it safe?" "Probably not, but we don't have a lot of choice." Kira replied infuriatingly coolly, grabbing hold of a unsteady-looking, rust-covered rung and starting to climb. "Come on, aren't you the one who's got a deadline to meet?" 

Ahh! Sara! He had almost forgotten about her! Setsuna practically hurled himself at the ladder and started to climb frantically, ignoring the muffled curses this elicited from Kira who didn't like the way Setsuna was making the ladder shake. For a moment they climbed in silence but naturally, desirable though that state was to the both of them, it didn't last very long. 

"Kira-sempai?" "What?" "What's Rociel got on you?" Setsuna asked unadvisedly, utterly missing the way the quality of the silence changed. "I mean you almost seemed scared of him and I know you don't scare easily, so…" "Nothing." Kira said, in a way that he hoped would preclude any further discussion. "Why would he need to have anything on me? He's a sick, over-powerful, unprincipled bastard with all the morals of an alley cat. Is that alarming enough for you or do you want more?" That said, he carried on climbing, perhaps a little quicker than before, and hoped that would be enough detail to satisfy Setsuna. It hadn't done. "But lots of people are bastards. Take Sevotharte. He's a total jerk and he doesn't seem to alarm you much." Kira sighed and muttered a curse under his breath before replying. "This isn't Sevotharte's labyrinth and Sevotharte doesn't have Rociel's way with lipstick." "Oh." Setsuna said again. "Is that all, or can we actually- ow! Fuck!" "Sempai?" Setsuna asked in consternation, looking up in an attempt to discover what the problem was. 

Kira had banged his head on a stone door set into the roof above their heads. Setsuna wasn't sure how best to react; should he start laughing, or would it be better to try and attempt sympathy? In the end he decided to do neither, and so he just patiently clung to the still horribly shaky ladder and waited whilst Kira rubbed his head. Luckily for the both of them Kira healed up fast so soon after he, clinging precariously to the ladder with one hand, pushed open the door with the other. It fell to the ground outside with a satisfying thump. The sudden stream of sunlight pouring in from the outside had Kira guarding his eyes with his free hand as he scrambled out and back onto solid ground. Setsuna, a lot less daring, just had to squint. 

He was still blinking in the afternoon sunlight as he followed Kira out of the trapdoor in the ground and looked around himself, gratified to notice that falling down the hole had brought him a lot closer to the castle and, for the first time since he entered the labyrinth, out of the claustrophobic rat-run of high-walled stone passageways he had been stuck in. For the first time, he felt his spirits lift somewhat. Kira, however, looked far less pleased by their changed surroundings. 

"You're on your own now," he said, with a twisted smile. "Later." "Sempai?" Setsuna asked uncertainly. "Where are you going?" "I told you, I'd take you as far as I could go. This is it. See you." He started to walk off, but Setsuna trailed after him, grabbing onto his arm. "But… that's dirty!" Setsuna continued tenaciously clinging, digging his heels into the ground in an attempt to keep Kira with him. "You kissed me, you jerk! There'd better have been something more than this in it for me!" Kira gave Setsuna another disturbingly smoldering look that had him feeling a little faint. "Don't try and tell me you didn't enjoy it." "Um… what?" Setsuna felt himself starting to blush faintly but perceptibly and decided the best thing he could do was to change the subject very quickly indeed. "Sempai. Look. There's still a long way to go, and I'd really appreciate the company, so could you please come with me? And if you don't come with me I won't let go of your arm and I'll steal your cigarettes." Kira knew when he was beaten. "Okay, whatever." He said with a sigh, prizing Setsuna off his arm. The boy grinned happily at him and set off purposefully again, humming cheerily to himself. Damn, who had taught that kid to look so (if he were to be completely honest) cute when he blushed? It really was hard to tell him no sometimes - never mind that he'd never had any problem telling people no before no matter how adorable they looked… 

Oh well. With a smile, a sigh and a shake of the head, Kira followed Setsuna off across the grounds. It was, he supposed, a purely humane gesture on his part. That kid drew trouble like a magnet and Kira supposed someone had to be there to help him out. ____ 

Slamming the door purposefully and somewhat petulantly behind him Rociel walked back into the room, pulling the pins out of his hair and shaking it free. He was frowning darkly and the frown only worsened when he noticed that Sara was still there, stood by the little ornamental table that was placed near the settee and trying to arrange the roses in a way that she thought looked more suitable. Rociel had liked the roses just fine as they were so naturally he was not best pleased. The fact that Katan was stood by the window discreetly trying to massage his temples was not lost on him either. Katan looked stressed and, considering that he had been trying to cope with Sara alone (Kirie having walked off somewhere in a jealous huff, no doubt), this was not surprising. Well, that was one thing at least. In his current mood Rociel was not at all inclined to want to deal with Kirie. 

That had not been his intention at all. He had not put Lucifel in that wretched oubliette just so that he and Alexiel could get pally. Certainly he hadn't wanted them to get that friendly! And now to find out that the wretched man was actively trying to help his dratted sister… well! Rociel was very annoyed and he didn't care who knew it. He would have to try and think of some way to get that idiot Lucifel out of the picture before he ruined everything. The only problem was, he didn't have a clue how to manage it. 

"Katan." He said, running his fingers through his hair and brushing it back into shape, then slumping back onto the couch with a small and utterly unexpected sigh that had Katan hurrying over almost immediately, his expression one of quiet concern. "I'm beginning to think this was a bad idea… and if you say so much as a word, Jibrielle, I'm throwing you into that oubliette and fuck the bet." Sara, who had been preparing to speak, instead stuck out her tongue childishly and went back to her flower arranging. "Is something the matter, Rociel-sama?" Katan asked delicately, giving Sara an uncharacteristically dark look for daring to stick her tongue out at Rociel. "Lucifel's the matter." Rociel replied, absently rubbing at his own forehead in an attempt to stave off an incipient headache. "The wretched man was supposed to be leading Alexiel out of the labyrinth but he's decided to help her further in for reasons best known to himself." "Do you wish him removed?" Katan spoke somewhat nervously; he didn't like the thought of trying to take out Lucifel. "No." Rociel said, "he might still be useful. What I want to do is hit him. Preferably hard." 

Sara, bent over her flowers, had tried to listen in to her captors' conversation but since they didn't seem to be talking about her beloved brother she quickly tuned out. She placed a rose in a slightly more striking position and tried to compose herself. Setsuna, she was sure, would soon be here to rescue her and she had nothing to fear from these people. She just wished she was a little more convinced that she was really safe here, even if she was a hostage. But people killed hostages, didn't they? Suppressing a shudder she tried to think of happier things, only looking up when the door opened again and that girl Kirie walked in. 

Rociel frowned when he saw who it was had interrupted them. "What, Kirie?" Kirie looked abashed. "Um… Rociel-sama, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but…" "Get on with it." Rociel said. "I don't have time for this, Kirie." Kirie swallowed. "Well… they escaped the Cleaners and they're making their way to the center again. Together. What do you want me to do?" To her surprise, Rociel just closed his eyes and sighed. "Let them be for now, Kirie. If they're so determined to stick together, well, we can use that too." To everyone's annoyance Sara chose that moment to butt in. "That's Anikichan, isn't it? You're talking about Anikichan!" Katan, with the air of a man who had heard it all far too many times before, placed one hand over one side of his face and stifled a moan of frustration. "Does it matter who it is?" Sara gasped. "But of course! Anikichan is coming to rescue me. He promised." Rociel gave a spot on the floor a very evil look indeed. "Obviously," he muttered. Kirie frowned. "Aren't you worried? Rociel-sama could kill you in a whisper if he wanted to, and your dear anikichan is in danger…" "I'm not afraid!" Sara declared and held up her hand, showing the three unimpressed angels a small red ring, which Rociel judged rather tacky. "See this ring?" "What of it?" Rociel asked. "It's nothing special." Certainly it had only cost a fraction of the amount any one of his dozen or so totally identical pairs of earrings would have done. "The ring protects me and aniki-chan!!" 

There was a long, uncomfortable, disbelieving silence, broken by Rociel who looked up from the floor and gestured to Katan, still stood a respectful distance away, to come closer. "Katan, come over here. I need to talk to you…" Once the man reached him Rociel looked up, lowering his voice so it was little more than a murmur. "She's beginning to scare me, Katan." "You too, Rociel-sama?" Katan asked, his voice just as low, contriving to ignore the look Kirie was giving him for daring to stand so close to Rociel and talk privately to him. "Yes, me too." Rociel replied. "Let's get a babysitter. Tell Kirie to call Sevi, Katan. I'm going to take a bath and I need to change my clothes." "What, again?" ____ 

Even with Kira's help, however reluctantly given, Setsuna was getting the feeling that he still wasn't doing that well. Though all the running he had done had helped regain some of the time he had lost talking, as had the inadvertent shortcut, he really didn't know where to go from here. The castle seemed no closer than it had done ten minutes ago and here he was, standing in a garden and looking lost. What way did he go now? Setsuna had no idea. 

"Where to now?" Setsuna asked Kira, who was following behind him with a far more serene expression on his face than Setsuna would ever have been capable of. "I have absolutely no idea." Kira said. "I told you I didn't know how to get to the middle. I don't know where we are any more than you do." The most obnoxious thing about Kira, Setsuna reflected, was even that admission of weakness couldn't make him look any less together. "Okay, I suppose you did try to warn me…" "Correct." Kira said coolly. "I did." "But that doesn't help! Where are we supposed to go?" Setsuna was again feeling a little desperate. "I have absolutely no idea." 

Setsuna and Kira could have gone on like this indefinitely if they hadn't been interrupted here by the sound of footsteps from behind them. Someone was walking up a flight of steps neither Kira or Setsuna could remember having climbed but which they were nonetheless at the top of. The two boys turned to face the newcomer - a slender, long-haired young man, smiling totally humorlessly. If it hadn't been for the white snake wrapped round his neck and the small mark on his forehead, he could have been accounted almost normal-looking. Overly sadistic, yes, but almost normal. 

"I could tell you," he said, dropping gracefully into a convenient stone chair that like the steps didn't appear to have been there before, "but then I'd have to kill you. Or I might tell you nothing and kill you anyway. It all depends what kind of a mood I'm in." "Oh." Setsuna said dully. "Hello there, Astaroth. Astoreth. Astarte. No, Astaroth… hang on a minute." He turned to Kira and pointed at the man in the chair. "Which one's this, Kira-sempai?" "Astoreth." Kira said. "He's the sadistic nut. Astaroth's the collective name for both of them." "Ah." Setsuna said; he had just caught sight of the expression on Astoreth's face. "And Astarte is?" "The insane woman who eats babies." "I think I'm probably just going to kill you." Astoreth said coldly, petting the snake and looking disinterestedly at Setsuna. 

Setsuna took the opportunity to back away a couple of paces; Kira stood his ground, as was his wont, and stared Astoreth down. It was probably a matter of some embarrassment to the demon that he was the one who looked away first. To cover his mild embarrassment, he draped the snake a little more comfortably around his neck and began chewing on one fingernail in an obviously practiced way. Astoreth had decided that it was probably a far better idea to concentrate on intimidating Setsuna; the tall one who looked like Lucifer really didn't look the easily intimidated sort. Setsuna realized this and, now stood what he hoped was a safe distance away from the lounging demon, he raised his hands in a defensive kind of way. 

"Look, I don't want any trouble…" "What if I do?" Astoreth asked, giving Setsuna a deliberately confrontational glare. "Ah! No!" Setsuna wondered if he could get away with backing off any further. "All I wondered was if you knew how to get through the labyrinth! You see, I've got to rescue my sister…" "Why would I bother?" Astoreth asked. "Because…" Setsuna began, then tried again. "Because… um…" "Bear in mind that your situation is affording me no end of pleasure as it stands." Setsuna looked awkward. "Okay, um, but…" "And that I'd be more than willing to do just the same to you myself if Rociel hadn't done it first." "Of course, but could you just…" "And that I would be overjoyed if you died here. Preferably in front of me." 

Setsuna blinked. This was getting them nowhere fast, even if he really should have expected nothing less of Astoreth. It probably wasn't going to do him any good trying to appeal to this sadistic freak, but what could he do? He had to try and help Sara somehow, and there was nobody else round here who looked like they knew what they were doing. Still, Astoreth…? Was it even worth trying? The man was a complete sadist who would probably be thrilled to hear that Rociel had Sara captive simply because it would hurt Setsuna to know it. 

He had to try, though! For Sara's sake! So, taking a deep breath and trying to look as charmingly persuasive as possible, Setsuna began "Yes, but if you could please just…" "I could tell you," Astoreth said for a second time, "but then I'd have to kill you. Just as payment for my services, you understand." Setsuna gave Kira a sidelong look. "Sempai, he's scaring me." "Give it a moment," Kira said unhelpfully, "and he won't be a problem any more." "Wha…" Setsuna began, then risked another glance at Astoreth. 

Astoreth was not looking good. In fact Astoreth was looking downright pained. The snake, which had up till now been lying supine on his shoulders was looking a little agitated too, insofar as it was possible to tell anything by looking at a snake. Setsuna and Kira could do nothing but watch as in front of their eyes (and to Setsuna's complete amazement), the man's body changed form in a way that looked to be very painful. As did the snake's. After a while Setsuna decided the best thing to do would be to look away and he did so, keeping his head averted until the figure in the chair spoke again. 

"… Who are you?" 

Setsuna looked round again, and did a doubletake. True, he had known about Astoreth and Astarte, but it hadn't prepared him for how weird it would be. The man in the chair had now been replaced by a young woman, as if that wasn't disturbing enough an obviously pregnant young woman, one hand on her stomach, who was looking up at him with something like confusion in her eyes. The snake was now black and looked, as far was it was possible to tell, rather huffy as it coiled itself round the woman's arm. 

"Have you come to talk to the baby?" Astarte asked, her eyes vacant, hands folded protectively on her stomach. "Baby?" Setsuna replied. "You mean… your baby?" "Of course I mean my baby." Astarte said. "Who else's baby would I be talking about?" 

Okay, Astarte was scary too. But even taking that into account, Astarte couldn't be harder to deal with than Astoreth had been, surely? All he would have to do was appeal to her maternal instincts and it would be fine! His plan formulated, Setsuna turned directly to face her with a look of deranged concern in his eyes that was not entirely faked. 

"My sister's been kidnapped!" he said dramatically, gesturing towards the castle. "Oh!" Astarte looked up at him, shocked. "You poor thing!" "Isn't it terrible?" Setsuna asked, giving Kira a beseeching look, which briefly changed into a glare. "I said isn't it terrible, Kira-sempai." "Yes, it's terrible." Kira said tonelessly. In actuality, he was having difficulty keeping a straight face at Setsuna's appallingly hammy acting. He had no idea what the boy thought he was doing it all in aid of, but presumably there was something. Either that or he was just mad. "You poor thing," Astarte said sympathetically, eyes drifting back to her bump. "Who kidnapped her?" "Rociel did." Setsuna replied. "Oh." Astarte sounded almost uninterested at this; Setsuna guessed, correctly, that the Inorganic Angel Rociel really didn't mean a lot to her except in a vague kind of way as 'one of them' where 'them' was every single angel ever so he tried a slightly different tack. "I mean the King of the Goblins did." "Who?" Astarte asked, looking incredibly vague. "The gender-confused lunatic who lives in the big castle." Kira interrupted, simplifying the message still further. Once again it looked like it was up to him to save the situation. Good thing he had come with Setsuna really, given that the boy couldn't conduct the simplest of conversations without getting both his interlocutor and himself hopelessly lost. "Do you know the way through?" But Astarte just looked vague again. "The way through what?" "The Labyrinth." Kira said patiently. "Oh, of course! Please, wait a minute." Astarte begun digging through her clothing. "I was given this to give to anyone who asked… where did I put it? I was going to give it to Baby to eat if nobody asked for it in time," she continued weirdly, totally missing the look Setsuna and Kira exchanged which as good as said 'this woman's a total nut, isn't she?' "so it must be somewhere round here… ah! Here." 

She straightened and handed Setsuna a small, foil-wrapped object which he took uncomprehendingly. Finding nothing obviously helpful about the outside he undid the packaging and pulling out a small brown biscuit, which he turned over and over, frowning. Kira too had started to frown as he watched the operation and with, he thought, good reason. "It's a fortune cookie." Setsuna said eventually, holding it out to Kira. "Break it open then." Kira said. Setsuna gave him a funny look and he shrugged. "What else would you do with a fortune cookie?" "You have a point." Setsuna said, breaking the biscuit in half and absently eating a bit of it, handing the other half to Kira before he unrolled the slip of paper, frowning again. "'The Way Forward Is Sometimes The Way Back'," he read. "What?" "Very helpful." Kira said sarcastically, swallowing his half of the cookie. "Very. What a waste of time." Setsuna said, turning back to the woman in the chair. "Astarte, what the hell is all- ah." 

Not Astarte any more. Once again the stone chair was inhabited by Astoreth, white snake wrapped round his shoulders, deeply displeased expression on his face, flexing his fingers in a way that spelt trouble for the two of them not just soon but almost immediately. "You're still here?" he said, getting to his feet with a frown. "Run?" Setsuna asked, looking at Kira in dismay. "Run." Kira agreed, his face a worrying blank. 

They ran. 

~to be continued~ 

Fanfiction Index 


	6. Chapter 6

Desperate Angel 

**The Labyrinth** An Angel Sanctuary fanfiction by Kaochan ____ 

**Chapter 6**

"Well." Kira said sardonically. "Aren't we doing wonderfully." Setsuna would have agreed if it hadn't been for the fact that he was in no state to talk. Hands resting on the wall in front of him, head down and back arched, he was struggling to catch his breath and when he did talk it was through gasps for air. "Tell me… that guy's not still chasing us." He managed, finally. "He's gone now." Kira said, looking back through the archway they had sprinted through. "Probably turned back into Astarte." "Yeah. Probably." Setsuna straightened, pushing his hair from his face then sighing. "Still, at least we're a little further on now." Kira decided not to distress Setsuna and confound his idiot logic by pointing out they might have run back the way they came. "We'd better get going." "Yeah, we'd better." Still a little out of breath, Setsuna hurried off down the corridor, his thoughts full of Sara - well, Sara and the hundred and one violent things he wanted to do to Rociel when they met up and would probably totally fail to do considering that you couldn't get near Rociel without being attacked by totally inexplicable mutant wires, but that truly was a matter for another day. Setsuna saw no reason why a little thing like reality should ruin his revenge fantasy, after all. 

Indeed, he was so caught up in his fantasy - and Kira too was lost in his own thoughts - that neither of them really heard any of the sounds of hard and surreal battle coming from in front of them until they had practically walked from the corridor they were currently traversing and into a large courtyard. Characteristically Kira snapped out of it first, stopping short when he saw what was going on ahead of them and dragging Setsuna back into the alleyway. 

"What?" Setsuna spluttered. "Kira-sempai!" How dare you ruin my pleasant Sara dream, he wanted to add, but he decided not to for the sake of discretion. "We need to turn back." Kira said. "The way's blocked." "Why?" Setsuna peered around Kira to see what could possibly have blocked their way, only to blink twice in surprise as his reward for this was a glimpse of perhaps the stupidest thing he had witnessed in all the Labyrinth to date - which, he had to confess, took some doing given the competition. 

At the far end of the courtyard, a group of goblins - so, there actually were goblins in this place then? Setsuna had been beginning to wonder considering he hadn't actually seen any yet and he'd been going for what felt like forever - had, for some bizarre reason (for it certainly couldn't be profitable nor did it look like that much fun), suspended a man, or at least Setsuna thought it was a man, upside-down by their ankles from a tree and were poking him with sticks. Why Setsuna didn't know. Certainly whoever it was they had there seemed no more than mildly annoyed about being upside down hinting at a certain flexibility that very few people possessed. In fact, if it hadn't been for the fact that they were having difficulty keeping their hat on Setsuna might almost have said that they looked untroubled, in spite of the goblins. Unfortunately they also looked completely out of their tree. 

"That's not blocked. Or at least it won't be if we get the goblins out of the way." Setsuna said, then added in a way which for him was almost shrewd, "anyway, if there are goblins there that must mean we're getting closer to rescuing Sara!" He smiled. Kira muttered something under his breath that sounded a lot like 'god give me strength' before he spoke aloud again. "Look, that's our dear old friend Mad Hatter as if it wasn't obvious from the weird clothes and… and the hat. And I don't want to go near that weirdo if I can get round it. Got that?" "No." Setsuna said stubbornly. "This is obviously the right way and that means Sara's through there!" He pushed past Kira, his expression dangerously set. "And I am going to rescue her." "Which her?" Kira asked. "Whatever. I'm not. Suit yourself." And he turned and stalked off down the corridor in the direction he had come. 

"Pth. Thanks for nothing." Setsuna muttered as Kira walked off, then he turned back to the courtyard. Great. The dratted sword finally went dormant when they were in the oubliette and now he actually needed the thing could he get it? No. Cursing, Setsuna started shaking the pendant Kira had given him in the hope that the Nanatsusaya might get the hint and come out again. Maybe the trouble was that Setsuna wasn't feeling terribly Alexielish, either that or it was because Kira didn't want to help, as it didn't work. Oh well, looked like it was time for plan B… 

Finally stepping out into the courtyard, Setsuna picked up the large branch that lay conveniently at his feet, carefully tugged out his earrings then walked threateningly over to the goblins. There weren't that many of them, but that really was the Mad Hatter so maybe this wasn't such a great idea after all. Still… in this reality he guessed he was the closest they were going to get to a Hero and it was a Hero's job to rescue women in trouble - not that Mad Hatter could be described as a woman without stretching the term somewhat. Good Lord, considering the way the narrative universe worked he'd have to team up with her and he didn't really want to get up close and personal with one of the Seven Satans. But he needed all the help he could get, even if the Mad Hatter did have a tendency to stab her allies in the back, and when occasion demanded in the front, whilst wearing a wide variety of nifty headgear. ____ 

"Rociel." "Sevi." "You're still alive, I take it?" "Obviously. You're looking well, worse luck." "Charmed. You called me." "Yes." "What about?" "See for yourself." "Her?" 

Katan tried to pretend he wasn't there. Something about polite conversation became very embarrassing when both parties had tried to kill one another on numerous occasions. Because they had an audience though, Rociel and Sevotharte were trying their utmost to act like they could talk to one another civilly without resorting to threats, bodily harm both actual and grievous and a spot of attempted murder. It wasn't easy for either of them. Sevotharte was looking at Rociel with utter loathing from under his mask; Rociel was attempting to smile so that Sara and Kirie didn't pick up the bad vibes, but he looked like he was planning to murder someone; he had that kind of smile after all. Probably Sevotharte. 

It probably wasn't helping smooth matters along that, in order to make some kind of point, Rociel had got Dubbiel out of his kennel (at least Katan suspected that was where Rociel was keeping him) and was casually holding his leash. Sevotharte could hardly have failed to notice. That probably accounted at least in part for the faint look of disgust. Everyone knew what Sevotharte thought of Dubbiel - exactly the same thing that everyone thought about Dubbiel. And to think he'd used to be Katan's superior. Katan certainly couldn't believe it, largely because Dubbiel was currently trying to worry the hem of his coat and was only slightly hampered by the fact that he didn't really have the jaw for it. 

"Stop that!" Katan pulled his coat from between Dubbiel's teeth and tried to gently nudge him away with his foot. For some strange reason he didn't feel entirely comfortable kicking the man who used to issue his orders. Rociel looked round, wondering what the problem was, then sighed. "How many times, Dubbiel…?" he said despairingly then wrenched at his leash, dragging Dubbiel bodily away from Katan. "Don't chew on Katan! And I told you to sit! Sit, damn you! That's better! I'm sorry, Sevi, you were saying?" 

Sevotharte tried to think. It wasn't easy when you were facing a delicate, worryingly pretty man - even if Rociel had put his uniform back on again, albeit without a jacket, and had his hair in a horribly severe plait which didn't suit him - who had one of your own subordinates on a leash. "You want me to look after Jibrielle?" "Yes, for an hour or so." "And what, pray tell, made you think I'd agree to such a preposterous demand?" "Well, you're a lot better at it than I could ever be." Rociel smiled sweetly. "Cut that out, Rociel, you know your tricks don't work on me." Sevotharte said scornfully. "Well you are… Dubbiel get down!" Rociel yanked on the straying Dubbiel's leash again, pulling him back to the floor. "You know you're not allowed on the furniture!" 

Sevotharte blinked once or twice in confusion. He really wasn't sure quite what Rociel thought he was achieving by having Dubbiel in the room with them, but whatever it was it wasn't working so well. Certainly the only thing he was worried about was that the horrible creature would jump up on him and soil his robes. 

"Rociel, I am, as you know, a very busy man. Do you really think I have the time to babysit Jibrielle?" Okay, Rociel thought, this was going nowhere. Looked like it was time to resort to more conventional tactics (blackmail, death threats, that kind of thing). "Of course, Sevi-sama. But isn't it worth taking her off my hands for an hour or so if in return I don't tell anybody what really happened to Laila?" Sevotharte narrowed his eyes and gave Rociel a look of pure hatred. "You wouldn't dare." "Wouldn't I?" Rociel asked, smiling in a way that Katan at least knew to mean that a quite sickeningly evil thought had just occurred to him. "Would you care to find out?" 

Sara watched the whole scene in complete mystification. Who was 'Laila' and why did this Sevotharte character care what happened to her? What was with the man on the leash? And what did Rociel want this Sevotharte for in the first place? Her questions were soon answered when Sevotharte, still looking daggers at Rociel and by extension Katan (who responded with another of his incredibly rare dark looks), walked over to her. 

"I'm going to be looking after you." He said brusquely. "Come on." "Can't I stay here?" Sara asked. "Of course not," Sevotharte extended his dirty look to take in Rociel's furniture on the grounds that it belonged to him. "These aren't my apartments. Come on." "Oh, well… I suppose so." Sara got to her feet, luckily totally missing the expression of total relief on the faces of everyone else in the room. Sevotharte, it seemed, had actually intimidated her into a rare moment of silence. "No need to hurry back." Rociel smiled genuinely for once, but a split second later he was frowning again as he pulled Dubbiel back to the floor again. "Dubbiel! Down! We don't do that to Sevi!" ____ 

"That felt nice." Setsuna said, wiping his brow and giving a happy sigh. All around, a large number of goblins lay either feigning death or unconsciousness or actually dead and unconscious. He didn't care which and he wasn't going to ask. He had needed that. All the frustrations he had been feeling were, if not exactly alleviated, at least assuaged. There was nothing like causing havoc to make one feel a lot better, he thought, fastening the last of his earrings and casually swinging the oh-so-convenient branch. 

The battle had been brief but decidedly violent, most of the violence emanating from Setsuna. A fortuitously-thrown rock had nicked his cheek a few seconds in, and the smell of the blood had been enough to send him completely over the edge, laying into anything he could lay fists, feet or branch on. Shame Kira-sempai had left really, it would have been good for his standing with him if Kira had seen him dispose of any number of nastily-beweaponed goblins using only a large chunk of wood. Sadly Kira had not been there. Maybe next time they met up Setsuna could oh-so-casually work the conversation round to it. It was a positive sign, he thought, that he had managed to deal with a major obstacle without having to get sempai involved. 

One hand on his hip, the other still clutching the branch, Setsuna surveyed the little courtyard and wondered which way to go next, all the while being very aware that he had to look quite amazingly cool. He was, after all, surrounded by the bodies of his fallen enemies, still gripping the weapon with which he had overcome them, the wind blowing through his hair and even the conventional action hero's tiny cut on the cheek! How fortunate that he was wearing jeans and his white t-shirt; he knew it would only increase the resemblance to all the Everyman heroes ever. If only Sara could have seen him now! Oh well, he would definitely tell her about this; he knew she'd be overwhelmed by how much he had gone through to save her… maybe it would do him some good with her. 

It was a great pose. Shame he blew it by screaming when someone tapped him on the shoulder. "What!" He shouted hysterically, spinning one hundred and eighty degrees so that he faced this new assailant, branch raised. "Put that down, you could hurt someone." "Oh, it's you." Setsuna realized that he had completely forgotten about Mad Hatter and would have probably gone on completely forgetting her if she hadn't been standing right in front of him and regarding him with a kind of carnal speculation that had him incredibly worried. Of course he needn't have bothered working himself up as Mad Hatter looked at everybody like that at first and it didn't necessarily mean she considered them worthy of any more than a casual fling. "How did you get down?" Setsuna asked a little dumbly, when his heart rate had returned to something approaching normal again. "I thought you were tied to a tree." Mad Hatter gave a gesture suggesting that to one of the Seven Satans such a thing was a mere technicality and she had only been playing along for as long as she remained interested. "One got tired with waiting for you to finish posing," she said, adjusting her hat so it was at a slightly more rakish angle. "Pick a card." She fanned out a deck of cards which she had seemingly pulled from her sleeve. A little bewildered, Setsuna took one and turned it over. What was all this in aid of anyway? "Eight of clubs?" "Ye- I don't have time for this!" 

Setsuna lost his temper once again and threw the card to the ground, where it caught fire - all very dramatic but Setsuna was in another Sara-induced rage and completely failed to notice it (Mad Hatter seemed a little stung by this; why had she gone to all the effort of wandering round with spontaneously combusting cards if nobody even noticed, never mind cared, when the things caught fire?). He had no time to waste playing card games with an insane clown! Deciding the best thing to do was rise above it, Mad Hatter looked critically at him and frowned, closing the deck again and tucking it back inside her clothing. Best thing to do was change the subject. 

"One wonders what you are doing here, Messiah." "I'm trying to rescue my sister." Setsuna said, deciding to settle for the ultra-short version of the story this time; he didn't really have the time to waste getting drawn into a conversation with a woman who would only have taken it as an excuse to go on about Lucifer, sexuality or both. "Rociel kidnapped her and gave me thirteen hours to get through the labyrinth. I… don't suppose you know the way?" Setsuna didn't even know why he asked; nobody he had met so far knew the way. Very likely not even Rociel knew considering he could appear and vanish at random and didn't have to go through it. "Why would one know the way through?" Mad Hatter asked. "Sorry, I suppose it was a stupid question." Setsuna said apologetically. "Do you at least know where I go to from here?" "There's only two doors here. You came through that one," Here she pointed to the alleyway Setsuna had emerged through, "and you leave through this one." This time the doorway lay directly behind her. That was a plus, Setsuna thought; he just had to be going in the right direction if he had run into all these goblins and there was only one way out of here. "Okay… well, thanks!" 

Setsuna gave Mad Hatter a cheerful wave and walked off. He was actually walking out of the courtyard when he realized she was following him. He decided not to say anything at first in the hope that he was mistaken and that they were merely walking in the same direction but when five minutes and a number of turnings had passed and Mad Hatter was still quite obviously following him, humming slightly to herself in what seemed to be an attempt to irritate him into attentiveness, he finally looked at her. 

"Why are you following me?" he asked. "It's fun." Mad Hatter replied smoothly. "Don't give me that." Setsuna grumbled. "You didn't say you were going to follow me." "If one follows you, one might find the Princess." Mad Hatter said. "One has a proposition one wishes to put to her. Have you met the Princess yet?" "Well…" Setsuna paused fatally. No way could he lie after that pause, it would have been too obvious. He should have said no, now he'd condemned himself to hours of Mad Hatter. Oh well, it could ave been worse. It could have been, say, Sevotharte or someone. "Now that you mention it, I haven't." "Then one is coming with you, Messiah." "Oh. Great." Setsuna tried, and failed, to sound thrilled. This could be a problem. He'd been hoping to find Kira-sempai again, but no way would he come back if Setsuna had this lunatic woman hanging round him. Probably best not to mention Kira-sempai right now though. The he remembered something Mad Hatter had said to him about having something to ask Kurai and he paled, thinking of the implications of it. "Um, Mad Hatter, what do you mean proposition?" "Just that one has a suggestion to make. One is not intending to harm the Princess…" "That's not what I was worried about…" This actually made Mad Hatter laugh, seemingly completely genuinely. "Messiah, neither does one intend to corrupt the Princess in any way. Quite the opposite." 

Setsuna thought it was a good thing they were actually walking as they talked, Mad Hatter a couple of paces behind him, seemingly quite content to let him set the pace. The only problem was Setsuna now felt horribly conspicuous. He could hardly feel anything but conspicuous though when he was being followed round by a tall, androgynous figure who was wearing circus make-up and who dressed even more like a visual rocker than Rociel did. The worst thing about it was he would actually have felt more comfortable being with Mad Hatter if she was a very flamboyant man; in spite of all the make-up she didn't look even remotely female, never mind at all feminine. 

"Somehow I'm not reassured." Setsuna said. "Firstly because you're a demon, secondly because you're also a habitual liar, cheat and a backstabbing traitor, and finally you're a complete nymphomaniac." "True." Mad Hatter said calmly. "But demons have their reasons." Setsuna looked over his shoulder at her. "You might at least look upset…" he said. "One is not upset in the slightest." 

This was going to be a long afternoon… okay, a longer one. Setsuna honestly couldn't imagine less relaxing company than Mad Hatter and now he thought about it he wasn't sure he wanted her behind him. It would be far too easy for her to stab him with an invitation or something, never mind what might happen if she suddenly decided she was sexually frustrated. Okay, this was not a good idea. But it wasn't really like he could tell a horribly powerful, if surprisingly scatty, demon to go away. 

Deciding that conversation was going to be a bit of a non-starter, Setsuna said nothing else until they reached a crossroads. He looked at it and frowned, deliberating. He had no idea which way to go now, both paths curved only slightly so it wasn't like trying to keep the castle in front of him would help; whichever way he took he would still be heading toward it. Irritating, he thought, but maybe not quite so irritating as the company he was in. It was a very good thing that he wasn't Raphael. 

"You come from this part of the labyrinth, don't you?" he asked. "Any ideas which way now?" "One never came this far." Mad Hatter said. "So which way would you choose to go then? If you had to make an educated guess?" 

Mad Hatter's answer was to take her hat off and dig around inside it as if looking for something, in the process of which she handed several things to Setsuna; a skull, a box of chocolate and Metatron's terrifying 'Usa-san', which Setsuna put carefully down on the corridor floor and backed away from. The damn thing was looking at him! Eventually Mad Hatter appeared to have found what she was looking for and relieved Setsuna of the skull and the candy, though Setsuna couldn't help but notice that she didn't seem to want anything to do with that creepy 'Usa-san' either. She was probably at quite a loss to work out what it had been doing in her hat in the first place. 

"Heads or tails?" she asked. "I said 'make an educated guess'," Setsuna said despairingly, "not 'let's toss a coin'!" "Very well, Messiah." Mad Hatter said coldly, and fell worryingly silent. Setsuna stared at the fork for a few seconds, then turned back to her with a sigh. "Heads." ____ 

"Do you know where Anikichan is?" 

Sevotharte had been watching Sara for exactly thirty-six minutes and fifteen seconds, he had another fifty-four minutes and forty-five seconds to go, and a miracle had happened. For the first time in his life, he had come to understand a situation from Rociel's point of view, and that point of view was this: having to look after Sara Mudou and not being able to even threaten her with any real conviction was an absolute, total, utter, complete pain in the proverbial. No wonder Rociel had wanted to get rid of her, even if it was only for an hour and a half (Dubbiel's jumping up at him had clinched the extra half-hour; anything to be out of the room and able to burn the cloak that oaf had soiled). 

In just over half an hour Sara had asked him where Setsuna was twenty-one times, told him she had a cheap ring which would protect Setsuna and herself five times, reminded the room at large that Setsuna would protect her and she knew he would come and rescue her twelve times and called Katan an unprincipled brute nine times. She seemed very fond of the phrase for some reason, shame it was so inaccurate. Sevotharte might not have liked Katan all that much, but the last thing he would have accused him of was being an unprincipled brute when the annoying thing about Katan was that he was quite the reverse. He had found no fault with the way she had described Rociel though and had tried to encourage her to talk about him, but Sara hadn't been able to stick to the topic for more than two minutes before starting to wax lyrical about Setsuna again. 

Sevotharte fixed her with his most intimidating glare, a glare that had never failed to shut up a prattling subordinate, intimidate a pawn or convey to an underling that he or she was in deep, deep trouble. Even though the underling could see only his eyes and eyebrows, it had always been enough. He very much doubted it would work on Sara. "No. Either start complaining about Rociel again or shut up." "But I don't want to talk about Rociel," Sara said, walking over to the table and sitting herself down at a delicate chair, surveying Sevotharte over one shoulder. "Rociel bores me and I don't want to see that brute of a manservant-" (ten, thought Sevotharte, and Katan's not a manservant you stupid girl, he's a Cherubim) "any more than I have to. He gives me the creeps!" Katan gave her the creeps? How exactly did Katan give anyone the creeps unless it was by being rather too fond of Rociel? "Does he indeed." Sevotharte said guardedly. "Yes, he does. He's not a patch on Anikichan!" (Who said he was?) "Anikichan's so much kinder to me than he is." (What were you expecting?) "He's always looking after me, and he won't let that horrible Rociel get away with kidnapping me! He'll come for me, I know he will." 

He was going to need a bath when this hour was up, and then he was really going to have to murder Rociel. Partly to shut him up about Laila (how did Rociel know about Laila anyway? Had Dubbiel known something? No, that wasn't likely; Dubbiel was too stupid), but mainly because he had forced him to look after this vacuous blonde ninny. 

Actually, no. Sevotharte needed a bath now, and a complete change of clothing. He was starting to feel quite horribly dirty - he hadn't even bathed when he got back from Rociel's! Just a new set of outer robes to replace the ones that had been soiled by Dubbiel - and the best thing to do when that happened was burn your clothing and get a clean, new set on. There had to be someone he could call to watch this girl for him whilst he was busy getting all the horrible dirt and grime off. There had to be… 

Ah yes, he knew exactly who to get to watch Sara. 

Getting to his feet and cutting off Sara's latest stream of prattle, Sevotharte looked coldly down at Sara as he excused himself "If you don't mind, I have to go and see to Metatron-sama. The Sisters will look after you." And with that he swept grandly out of the room, leaving a rather bewildered Sara sitting at her desk and wondering if it was something she said. A few minutes later, there was a tentative knock on the door and a Sister, a young girl with pink hair and an expression of almost limitless vacuity on her face, walked into the room, smiling at Sara as she came. 

"Good afternoon, Sara-sama!" "G-good afternoon!" Sara jumped to her feet, a little taken aback by the way the new arrival was smiling. She actually seemed to be somewhat friendly, which alone was something of a miracle in this foul and hostile place. Were these horrible people really angels? They were nothing like the angels she had learnt about in school! "Are you… a Sister?" "Yes, I am a Sister," the girl said, still smiling. She practically seemed to twinkle as she moved round the room, rearranging this and that. "My name is Moonliel… is there anything I can get for you? Anything at all?" Sara blinked. "What do you mean?" "Well," Moonliel said with a smile, "for example, it's tea time!" There almost seemed to be a heart at the end of her last sentence. "We could have tea together and then I could find you some pretty flowers to brighten up the room and then I could do some dusting…" "You could do all that for me?" Sara asked. She still felt very confused. "But of course I could, Sara-sama! I am a Sister, and I am here to serve you!" Another good natured, empty-headed grin. "Now, would you like some tea?" Sara smiled. "Of course I would!" 

This was a lot better, Sara thought to herself as Moonliel skipped from the room. Tea and cake, flowers for the room and a friendly, smiling Sister to see to her… she could get used to this. She was sure she could bear this for the next few hours, and then Setsuna would be here and would save her and everything would be wonderful again. With that cheering thought, Sara settled back down at the table and waited. This wasn't so bad. This was the way being held prisoner ought to be. 

~to be continued~ 

Fanfiction Index 


	7. Chapter 7

**The Labyrinth** An Angel Sanctuary fanfiction by laila 

**Chapter 7**

If he had possessed a watch Setsuna would have been looking at it intently, to try and find out how long he had spent in the company of Mad Hatter without succumbing to the delicious temptations of curling up into a corner and starting to babble softly to himself. It wasn't so much that she was scary, it was more that she was just so weird that it was making his poor abused brain want to give up the ghost completely. But mainly it was because every time he wasn't quite sure what way to go it was decided for him on the toss of a coin - and that he actually seemed to be making _far_ better progress now than he had been when he was relying on his own judgment. Realizing that decisions made completely at random were working better than his own reasoned judgment had been was a bit of a blow to Setsuna's masculine pride. 

At least Mad Hatter didn't seem to want to talk much. That probably meant that she didn't find him sexually alluring which would have been insulting if it hadn't been such a relief. 

"Heads or tails?" she said again, pulling the ever-present coin out of her pocket. 

Setsuna, who had been lost in his own grim speculations and enjoying it there, shook himself mentally. Ah, another of those two-door puzzles, was it? He wondered if this was like the logic puzzle that Zaphkiel and Raziel had presided over earlier and which he had enjoyed so much. 

"Well, I _like_ that!" 

The voice was that of a young girl and it sounded like it came from the wall above them. As Setsuna and his strange companion watched it's owner, a dark-skinned teenager with a single useless wing, jumped down to land in front of one of the doors, followed by a boy of the same age, obviously her twin, who stood in front of the other. Noise and Voice: well, if they were there, that meant Kurai had to be around here somewhere and Setsuna was beginning to hope she was. At least Kurai was a friend. At least he knew she wouldn't try and double-cross him. At that Setsuna gave Mad Hatter a sidelong glance but she seemed very interested in Noise for some reason - Setsuna hardly liked to wonder why - and he decided not to say anything. 

Noise didn't really seem to have noticed Mad Hatter's scrutiny; she was a bit too angry. "We stand here by these doors day in day out, never seeing anybody, bored out of our minds, and then when someone does come along it's _heads or tails_! I don't know!" She planted her hands firmly on her hips and glowered up at Setsuna. "I think we should make him stay here, neechan." Voice said irritably, giving Setsuna an even dirtier look than his sister was. "I'm sorry!" Setsuna said hastily, since Mad Hatter hardly seemed inclined to apologize. "We were wondering which door to choose and since we don't know where we're going…" Voice just snorted angrily as if he had expected no less from Setsuna but at least he had managed to make Noise giggle slightly. "Well, I _suppose_ that explains the coin thing. Was it…" she looked a little dubiously at Mad Hatter as if she was trying to figure out what on earth she actually was, largely because that was exactly what she was doing, "your, um, friend's idea?" "Well it certainly wasn't mine." Setsuna said. "And if she asks you to pick a card don't do it or we'll never get out of here." "Why do you have a demon with you anyway?" Voice asked suddenly. "Why _should_ we let you through? Princess is through there somewhere-" _aha_, thought Setsuna, that's good, "and that thing might attack her!" "One has no intention of harming the Princess." Mad Hatter said calmly. "And why should I believe a word you say?" Voice said crossly. "You shouldn't." Mad Hatter replied, rather ruining any effect her last comment may have had. "Well I'm not letting you past then!" Voice yelled, and leant against his door with his arms folded. 

Noise, who had been watching the confrontation with a long-suffering older sister's frown on her face, shook her head when Voice flung himself back against his door. Once these two were gone she would have to have a word with him; he was _really_ embarrassing her! Younger brothers were so stupid some of the time… well, okay, all of the time. 

"It's no use trying to talk to him, Messiah. He hates you," she said with a glare that told Voice he was really going to be in for it as soon as they were alone again. "Um, okay." Setsuna said. "Which way do these doors go then?" Noise shrugged. "Don't ask me, we're just the gatekeepers." She leant against the wall next to her door, regarding them both through slightly narrowed eyes. Okay, the blonde boy seemed nice enough, a bit vague maybe, but what was _with_ that guy he was with? Or maybe it was a woman. Whatever the stranger turned out to be they were weirding her out. 

Setsuna sighed again, and turned back to Mad Hatter. "Oh. Great. Now what do we do? Any ideas?" "One wonders if one might venture a suggestion." Mad Hatter said. Setsuna looked at her suspiciously, but decided there was nothing for it. "Go ahead." "Messiah, one thinks that if you really are serious about rescuing your sister, it might be an idea to stop procrastinating." Oh great, Mad Hatter was pissed off. But she had a point. "Okay, I guess so…" he said, and walked over to Noise and Voice. 

Naturally enough, he chose Noise's door. She wasn't standing in front of it and she wasn't glaring at him like she would try and rip his arm off the minute he walked up to her. She even gave him a friendly half-smile as he opened the door and entered the next part of the labyrinth, though she pressed herself against the wall when letting Mad Hatter through. She didn't want to get close to that one. 

The door hadn't even swung shut behind them before Setsuna heard Noise start loudly rebuking Voice for his rudeness; the slam of the door broke her stride not one bit and certainly her comments were only slightly muffled. Shaking his head, Setsuna decided that the best thing to do would be to get out of there to somewhere quieter and hope that whatever comment Mad Hatter might want to make, given the look on her face, she would keep it strictly to herself. 

But of course she wasn't about to do anything of the sort. 

"Messiah, one wonders," she said apropos of nothing when they had been walking for a few minutes more and Setsuna had begun to hope that she was going to let whatever it was lie, "about your attitude to your sister." "Really." Setsuna said tersely. "What about it?" "You claim you want to rescue her and yet one feels you're hardly rushing to her aid." Setsuna growled. "And whose fault is that? God, this _stupid_ labyrinth! If it wasn't for this I'd have rescued her already!" "You really think that?" Mad Hatter asked him quizzically, then added more to herself than anything, "Amazing how easily humans delude themselves…" "What do you mean 'delude'?" Setsuna asked angrily, spinning round to face her. "I love Sara and I am going to rescue her!" "So you say." Mad Hatter replied smoothly. "And yet you prolong the delays. Thefore, one cannot help but wonder. Often it takes a stranger to see these things." Setsuna gritted his teeth in irritation. "There's _nothing_ to see! I love her!" He yelled furiously. Mad Hatter raised one eyebrow and surveyed him infuriatingly calmly. "It was merely a suggestion," she said, pulling a pale blue rose from her sleeve and handing it to him. "Give this to the Princess with my regards." 

That said, she walked off through one of the walls. 

Setsuna stood there for a moment or two, staring at the wall rather dumbly before it occurred to him that maybe this was another of the illusory walls that Arakune had pointed out to him. He'd walked into it and was rubbing his head for the _nth_ time when he remembered that Mad Hatter was a demon and seldom bothered using doors when the walls or floor would do just as well. 

Okay, so he was alone again and this was no bad thing. That was exactly what had worried Setsuna about taking up with Mad Hatter! It wasn't enough that she was a complete nymphomaniac who enjoyed using her lovers, she had to go around sowing the seeds of doubt in other people's happy relationships too! About the only good thing about her, he thought, was she hadn't given a damn about Sara being his sister and his lover but that was probably because she honestly didn't care about things like that. And _that_ was probably because she was a demon. Well, he was better off without Mad Hatter and he didn't care anyway and it wasn't like it was his fault that he couldn't rescue Sara quicker! 

Maybe, a little voice inside him murmured, you're only feeling so defensive because you can't admit she hasn't got a point… maybe you're not as fond of Sara as you think you are. Maybe everyone else was right and you were only interested in Sara because she was nearby… or maybe Katou was right and it was only because you were vain… 

No, that wasn't it! Damn Mad Hatter, getting into his head like this. Quickly he brushed himself down, discovering as he did so a small black feather resting on one of his sleeves. No wonder he was in such a bad mood if she'd been sticking her feathers onto him. Why did Mad Hatter have to be so irritating and manipulative? Well, he supposed she _was_ a demon and that was just the kind of thing that they did…it was still annoying, though. Aggravated, he stalked off down the corridor muttering imprecations that, for the first time in several hours, were not aimed at Rociel. 

"That bitch Mad Hatter… how _dare_ she say I'm not trying hard enough! I'll give her 'not trying'! So what if everyone I meet insists on talking at me before they consent to help me! I'm doing this as fast as I can… I'd like to see anyone else manage this any quicker than I've been doing…" 

"But you're not running, are you?" 

Setsuna stopped short, entire body tensing in shock as he spun round to face the intruder, the expression on his face an alarming mix of anxiety and anger. Not this again, not now! He just couldn't handle much more of this! 

"You again!" Setsuna yelled furiously. "Yes, me again." Rociel said with a smile, flipping his hair from his shoulder. "Of course. This _is_ my Labyrinth." Setsuna couldn't help but notice that he'd changed his clothing yet again, this time to a whole lot of tight black leather, a white shirt and high-heeled boots. This time he seemed to be going for the 'model in search of a photographer' look. The way he was positioned hardly helped - half-lying in a posed kind of way on top of a heavily-verdigrised statue of a rampant lion, one hand on its head, resting his chin on the other; hardly the attitude, Setsuna thought, of a lord and master. But maybe that was kind of the point. He wondered how long it had taken Rociel to come up with it. Probably not long. Or, on the other hand, an unconscionable period of time. Neither would have come as that much of a shock. Still, small mercies: at least he wasn't lying on his back. That would have just been alarming. 

"Good God, and I thought you looked like a hooker _earlier_?" Setsuna asked, momentarily feeling a little thrown off balance. "What on Earth do you think you're wearing?" Rociel frowned. "Come now, don't tell me I came all this way just so we could trade clothing tips. But whilst we're on the subject, that shirt doesn't go with the jacket." "All this way?" Setsuna asked, feeling his heart sink. "You mean I'm still nowhere near the center of this thing?" "Of course not. You still have several hours left. Did you _really_ think this would be that simple?" As he spoke, Rociel had started stroking the head of the stone lion. 

Setsuna fumed. For a couple of moments he considered forcing Nanatsusaya out of the pendant again so that he could have it out with Rociel here and now and bugger the rest of this ridiculous game, but of course he couldn't do that, he realized, as his mind returned almost immediately to a topic that was never far from it. 

"What have you done with Sara?" he asked angrily. Rociel flipped his hair back behind his shoulder before he spoke again "She is quite safe," he said with a malicious smile. "Sevotharte is watching over her." "Sevotharte?!" Setsuna echoed in shock. "You got _Sevotharte_ to watch Sara? My God!" "He will not harm her." Rociel said sedately. "Sevotharte! I can't believe this… why, you monster! Give back Sara now!" 

Rociel frowned; all of a sudden he was feeling very irritated. Oh look, here's Rociel. I don't like him very much. What devastating insult should I launch at him today? I know, I'll call him a monster and I may or may not prefix 'beautiful' to that remark. Just like almost all of the other people who have ever felt the need to insult him for whatever reason. Just like the way he thinks of himself. Because stating the bloody obvious is _such_ an effective way to insult someone. Good grief, this was becoming a really _boring_ conversation. 

"Can't you get a new line?" he asked petulantly. "What?" Setsuna blinked. "Stop calling me a monster, it's getting _very_ old. Call me something a bit more imaginative next time, like… Oh, I don't know. You're a moderately intelligent boy, I'm sure you'll think of something." Setsuna frowned deeply. "Who cares! Why can't you just give me Sara back since you can't even be bothered to watch her?" Rociel laughed in a way that implied to anyone watching that he was clearly quite insane. "Because she's still useful, up to a point. Because I like seeing you struggle and you wouldn't do this if I didn't have her." "True," Setsuna admitted grudgingly, but Rociel clearly hadn't finished yet. "Because you've still got almost eight hours to go. Because I really can't think of anything else to do today. But most of all…" He leant forward and tilted Setsuna's chin up with two fingers; Setsuna was momentarily too startled to do anything about it, "But most of all because it's fun. Alexiel." "Setsuna!" Setsuna yelled, jerking his head back and away from Rociel's hand. "My name is Setsuna! You could at least call me by the right bloody name!" "Your name is Alexiel." Rociel said, caressing the stone lion again. "You're just in denial. And now you must excuse me. I have some urgent business to attend to." "Good!" Setsuna yelled. "Go to it! Just remember this, Rociel! I'm going to rescue Sara, and then I'm going to make you pay for this!" Rociel smiled. "I know you will, Alexiel. And I'll be waiting for you." 

He stood, jumped from the lion's back onto the top of one of the walls, and was gone leaving Setsuna fuming, even more irritated than he had been before, and if anything only even more determined to rescue his sister. How _could_ Rociel leave the poor girl with _Sevotharte_? 

Setsuna set off down the corridor again, incensed. He'd show Rociel. In fact, he'd show them all. 

From his perch on the balcony of an ornamental tower that had probably seemed to this place's designers like a good idea at the time, Rociel watched him go. Alexiel had seemed irritated. Well good, he should be. What would the point of this be if he wasn't managing to get under the boy's skin somehow? Still, that wasn't important right now. Not when he had another visit to pay. 

Lucifel. Where was that wretched man? He had to be here somewhere. If Rociel had guessed right, he would be trying to find Alexiel again after abandoning him a while ago. He was probably feeling guilty, Rociel suspected, for leaving Alexiel to deal with Beliel alone. Well, that Rociel suspected he could work with. He had given Lucifel an order to fulfill and he had disobeyed. He had warned him what would happen if he still failed to carry out the order and he had still hesitated. That provided Rociel with a convenient little hold over the man and he intended to make use of it. 

Of course he could just have Lucifel discreetly killed, but what would the fun be in that? 

Speaking of which, where had he left the… Rociel reached into his back pocket, wishing momentarily that he had worn his uniform which at least was rather more practical in that regard. No, it wasn't in there, so where… oh, that was right, he hadn't actually got round to _creating_ the thing yet, that was why he didn't have it. Honestly, he was getting so absent-minded. It was just one of the down sides to being so deliciously insane, he noted with a sigh. 

For once, simply for effect, Rociel had his wings spread. Heaven knew how he was managing that without ruining a perfectly decent shirt but that didn't really matter. It was a simple enough matter to tug a feather free - even if it did hurt and quite a lot too, but it was all a means to an end, right? - and watch the way it changed in his hand. And to think all it took was a little concentration to get the thing looking quite different from the form his feathers normally assumed. Holding it up, Rociel watched the thing sparkle in the light and he smiled completely humorlessly. _Perfect_. He slipped it back in his pocket for the moment and carried on looking for Lucifel, finally spotting him a few hundred yards away from Alexiel. Even taking into account the vagaries of the paths they would very likely be meeting up soon, largely because they were both heading in the same direction. 

He was probably looking for her anyway. Now that really wouldn't do. Not whilst he didn't have Alexiel's… call it her _present_. 

"Where in the hell _is_ he?" Kira muttered under his breath. He shouldn't have done that. God, no matter how badly he didn't want to see that whacko Mad Hatter, how could he have abandoned Setsuna to her less-than-tender mercies? If the woman hadn't got them hopelessly lost, then she had probably double-crossed him and left him to Rociel or pinned him to the wall and tried to ravish him. So he should definitely not have left. 

If he listened carefully he could hear the mellifluous sound of Setsuna cursing the air blue. All he had to do was follow those dulcet tones and he would be able to reach the boy and help him out again. All he had to do in order to do just that was find him… something that was far easier said than done in this bloody stupid labyrinth. No wonder Setsuna had been in such a bloody awful mood… not that Kira himself was in a much better one. 

"Setsuna!" he called impulsively, then immediately wished he hadn't when someone stood behind him coughed discreetly. "Going somewhere, Lucifel?" Rociel asked, cocking his head to one side and gazing at Kira almost inquisitively. He wasn't posed _quite_ so heavily this time, but this was largely because Kira wouldn't have been as receptive to it as Setsuna was. He still had his wings spread though - perhaps because he wanted to look more imposing. Unfortunately for Kira, it was working. "Ah, Rociel-sama." Kira said, affecting a show of unconcern. "I was just looking for Setsuna so I could take him back to the beginning, as per our deal." "Really." Rociel said skeptically. "I really don't want to have to lose my temper with you, Lucifel, so I hope for your sake you're telling me the truth." Kira managed to look quite convincingly surprised. "Now why would I want to do that?" "Perhaps because you were hoping to stick your tongue down my sister's throat again, though why you'd _want_ to I don't know." "You saw that?" 

Kira mentally kicked himself the moment he spoke. But of course he'd seen it! Rociel saw pretty much everything that went on in this ridiculous place and it was no doubt why he'd been so angry last time. It probably explained why he was frowning so severely now. For a moment Kira almost felt sorry for him but squashed the feeling almost immediately, largely because Rociel would have been furious if he'd known about it and the last thing he wanted was to make a dangerously psychotic individual like Rociel any madder with him than he was already. 

"Yes, I saw you. And the way I see things _now_," here Rociel took a pace toward him, "I would be quite within my rights to kill you on the spot." "No you wouldn't." Kira replied, frowning in confusion. "You're a lunatic." Rociel carried on as if he hadn't spoken. "Now, I'm not going to do that because I'm in a forgiving mood, though admittedly that _is_ largely because you may still prove useful. So I've decided to give you one last chance to redeem yourself." "What do you mean?" Kira asked. "Didn't I say I was just going to lead Setsuna back to the start of the-" "Yes you did, and what a _bore_ it would be." Rociel yawned theatrically. "I'd rather you helped me out some other way, Lucifel." "Like how?" Kira asked suspiciously. "You are going to give my sister this." 

Here Rociel held up an earring in the shape of a rather stylized flower. It was pretty, worryingly so, and yet there was something rather off about it, Kira thought. Maybe it was something about the worryingly slick-looking metal, maybe something about the way the petroleum-green stone in the center shone. It was beautiful, but there was something subtly wrong about the whole thing. Could an earring look evil? Kira thought it probably could. 

"How in the hell am I meant to give a boy _that_?" he asked in surprise. "Come on, aren't you always giving Alexiel jewelry? Necklaces, earrings… that kind of thing?" Kira opened his mouth then hesitated fatally. Damn Rociel! He was right, wasn't he? Setsuna wouldn't even have been surprised were Kira to give him that wretched earring, weird thought it undoubtedly looked… "Don't be ridiculous, he wouldn't accept it." he said finally, but without any real conviction. "Oh really." Rociel stated. He held the earring between finger and thumb, letting it gleam in the light - but that gleam too looked wrong. The metal didn't even look like metal, not really. "She will accept it, Lucifel. I don't care what you say to make her accept it, I don't even care if you beat her senseless and put the thing in her ear yourself. All that matters is you give it to her and she wears it. Or else you'll wish you'd decided to _stay_ dead." 

Normally Kira would have said that was too nonspecific to be any kind of threat whatsoever, but coming from Rociel it was. He didn't like admitting it to anybody but there was something about the man that really had him… not scared, he told himself, he was not afraid of anybody! He was just a little… perturbed by him, that was all. Rociel was worrying, if not frightening. Perhaps because this was his country, so to speak, and it never paid to get on the wrong side of a lord in their own domain. Or maybe it was the nail varnish. 

"Why can't you give it to him yourself?" he asked finally. This made Rociel laugh. "Now _you're_ being ridiculous! Do you really think that Alexiel would accept anything from me?" "No." Kira said firmly. "No, he wouldn't." "But she will from you." Rociel was still smiling - maliciously and almost triumphantly, Kira thought. Why triumphantly? What was he planning? What would giving him that earring _do_? "She'll accept it from you. Because she trusts you." You bastard, Kira thought. You cynical, manipulative, evil bastard. Normally he would have said it and damn the consequences… but this could hardly have been called a normal situation, could it? Rociel had him where he wanted him and they both knew it. "It won't hurt him, will it?" he heard himself say, his voice tight. "If it does anything to harm him, Rociel…" "It won't hurt him." Rociel said, not terribly reassuringly given that Kira trusted him about as far as he could comfortably throw him, which even when considering Rociel's rather delicate build wouldn't have been all that far. "Good." Kira said angrily. Without realizing it, his hands had balled into fists. 

Rociel still hadn't let fall the hand that held the earring and reluctantly, as if the thing would bite him the minute he touched it, Kira took it. It felt oddly heavy in his hand, too heavy for such a decorative thing anyway. It was weird. Uncanny. And he didn't like it one bit. 

"Say what you like, just make sure he takes it." Rociel repeated. Kira glared at him, but he said "Okay. If you insist." He hoped he said it firmly but reluctantly, if that was at all possible. "Oh, and Lucifel?" Rociel had half-turned, as if he were about to leave, but he turned back again. "One more thing. "If you dare kiss her again…" He deliberately left the sentence unfinished but Kira decided to push his luck - in the state it was at the moment what did he have left to lose? Apart, he thought more nervously than he would have admitted, for my ability to speak, my limbs and my life anyway? "What will you do?" "I haven't decided yet." Rociel replied calmly. "But if you have half the sense you were born with, Lucifel, you won't push your luck any further and decide to find out what I've chosen, because you'll certainly live to regret it before I decide to put you out of your misery. Understood?" "Understood." Kira said. "You unprincipled, unscrupulous _bitch_." "_Language_, Lucifel." 

And, still smiling totally humorlessly, Rociel was gone again, leaving Kira staring after him. The earring still rested in his palm and he looked down at it and shuddered. Give this to Setsuna? But how, knowing what he knew about it, about Rociel? What was he supposed to say? And what in the seven Hells would it do to him if he did? Kira doubted very much that he wanted to know. Shuddering theatrically, he slipped it back into his pocket. Anyway, he couldn't let this distract him. He still had to find Setsuna before the boy got himself in so deep that he'd need rescuing _yet again_… or before Mad Hatter propositioned him. Wasn't that more important than whatever insane scheme (insane being the correct word for it) Rociel had cooked up _this_ time? Of course it was. 

Steeling himself, Kira set back off down the passageway again in search of his missing friend, though he had no idea what he'd do if he found him… but Rociel had the attention span of a six-year-old after all. With any luck Rociel would forget he'd even given him the earring in the fist place. 

to be continued 


End file.
